Measuring Readiness of Women Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: Scale Validation and Contextualization

Abstract

Inexisting body of literature on entrepreneurship, suggests lack of a scientific measurementtool, which can be used to study the readiness forwomen entrepreneurshipparticularlyin Indian context. The keyintention of this research was to develop a specific measurement tool toassess the entrepreneur readiness especially amongwomen.Thisresearchpaperisbasedonthevariableslinkedwithentrepreneurialreadiness activityextracted from theexisting literature of the subject.The questionnaire was developed using four constructs identified as attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial readiness, in line withthe Theory of Planned Behaviour. The operationalization of factors was done with the help of existing insightful and validatedscales. In order to validate the women entrepreneurship readiness scale,aresearchercontrolledsamplingmethodwasemployedtocollectdatafromthe femalestudents(N=294) of the university of Kashmir. The research used Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)technique for dimensionality of scale, was further subjected to construct validityusing Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).The Exploratory Factor Analysis(EFA), techniquefactorized the entrepreneurship readiness instrumentto 04 factor structures. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) results also showed adequate construct validity (CR, CVand DV) for the entrepreneurship readiness construct. In conclusion, this research work usedscientific approach to developa valid instrument for the measuring entrepreneur readiness and put forward significant implications for the future research course of action.