Abstract
This book was conceived when Dr Kiron Wadhera and Professor George Koreth, who both have considerable experience in the development sector and in academia, observed a strong correlation between “entrepreneurial success” and the “achievement motivation” of poor rural women. They found that more than 90 percent of successful women entrepreneurs who had succeeded in sustaining their micro-enterprises in villages had high achievement motivation. That implies that a rural woman with achievement motivation has a higher chance of being successful as an entrepreneur than one without the motivation to achieve.
This book is the result of an extensive systematic research study on poor Indian women who ventured to set up a micro-enterprise. The research included a questionnaire survey, observational study, Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT) instrument exercises (2004–2005), and follow-up data collection (2011) in 18 different villages of Bharatpur district in the state of Rajasthan in India. Follow up was conducted on a total of 183 women entrepreneurs after five years of their first venture; and 45 of them took the TAT to measure their inner motivation.
The book also provides a vivid description of a “cash-less” material loan model for rural women micro-entrepreneurs developed by the Asian Center for Organization Research and Development (ACORD), an NGO based in New Delhi, India. The model is characterized by steps such as consultative inclusion of men, informal assessment of business plans, counseling, and most importantly credit as “materials” rather than cash loan. The authors describe how instead of following the popular micro-credit or micro-finance program model, ACORD selected the micro-enterprise development model, which is both scalable and replicable.
The book is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter defines the key concepts and terms used in the book, and presents a brief review of the relevant literature. The extensive literature review reveals that no significant study of this kind has been conducted for women entrepreneurs, in either the urban or the rural space. However, various research studies on urban male entrepreneurs, conducted over the last 60 years, have identified a strong correlation between “entrepreneurial success” and “achievement motivation.” The book is dedicated to David C. McClelland of Harvard University, and makes extensive use of the pioneering work done Dr McClelland and his associates on “achievement motivation.”
The second chapter highlights the key features of the “cash-less” material loan model run by ACORD, and describes the various steps followed under it. ACORD’s carefully designed micro-enterprise development program seems to have helped poor rural women in selecting, developing, and sustaining their businesses, thereby getting empowered. The third chapter outlines the socioeconomic situation of the study area besides detailing the socioeconomic profile of the women entrepreneurs under study before and after starting micro-enterprise. The chapter shows that there is no relation between the presence of “achievement motivation” (in the respondents) and social factors, such as, caste, education, or age.
The fourth chapter, which is arguably the most significant section of the book, presents the TAT score of 45 women entrepreneurs. The test found that more than 90 percent of those who displayed achievement motivation in their profile were successful in managing, and even expanding or diversifying, their enterprises. At the same time, most of the women (over 89 percent) who were not persistent in their approach, or gave up too easily, did not display achievement motivation in their profile. The authors argue that these results demonstrate a clear relationship between the presence of “achievement motivation” and “entrepreneurial success.”
The fifth chapter provides further insights into the successes and failures of women entrepreneurs through 16 personal stories, and reveals how women who had “achievement motivation” mostly chose those activities for their micro-enterprises which involved selling, trading, and farm-related sales, rather than only production or skill development. On the other hand, most of the women who had not displayed any need for achievement in their profiles, settled for production-related activities, which carried no perceived risk of failure.
The sixth chapter discusses the patterns of male responses to the rural women’s entrepreneurial journeys. And the successful women entrepreneurs recount the encouragement and support they received from their husbands/families in initiating their enterprise. The chapter underlines the importance of “male inclusion” strategy of the ACORD model.
The book concludes with a number of suggestions for the way forward. One of its key recommendations is that organizations working for women’s development should undertake pre-grant or pre-support assessment, including “achievement motivation” evaluation, in order to reduce the failure rate of first-time entrepreneurs.
The appendix is quite educative in that it provides brief descriptions of organizations in Bangladesh (Grameen Bank), Nepal (SFDP), Pakistan (AKRSP and Kasf Foundation), and India (RMK, NABARD, SIDBI, MVN, Dastkar, SEWA, the “Padmavathy” Experience, AWAKE, and URMUL Trust) that facilitate various programs for self-employment and micro-enterprise among the poor, particularly women.
One of the major faults of this book is the large number of repetitions of statements and data throughout the chapters. The authors could have also made the book more interesting by making the chapters more concise. Another downside of the book is that it is based on only one study conducted in a specific state of India. Additional research in other parts of India and/or other Asian countries might be useful in substantiating the findings of the study (the authors also recognize this).
In the foreword to the book, Dr N.C. Saxena, a member of the National Advisory Council in India, hoped that “this pioneering effort by the authors of this book would provide motivation for several others to help the large population of this country (India) to come out of the poverty trap and improve the indicators of human development.” It would not be an overstatement to say that any nation of the world aiming to eradicate poverty could benefit from the ideas presented in the book.