Asia Pacific University Library catalogue

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in Management (UCPF1902MGMT).

Entrepreneurship helps fight against social exclusion and unemployment among females. In developing countries, there is increasing female graduates who do not find jobs in the trained sector. Females differ concerning career opportunities and sociocultural expectations, making female entrepreneurship promotion more challenging. Hence, promoting entrepreneurship spirit and motivation among females, especially female students is vital to release employment pressure. The importance of entrepreneurship promotion among females is well-established; however, there is still a dearth of studies examining the role of sociocultural environment in shaping female cognition of entrepreneurship using multidimensional models, especially in small island developing states (SIDS).

Entrepreneurial intention and behaviour represent the first phase of creating a business, behaviour reflecting intention’s genuineness. This study examined the relationship between gender stereotyping, social legitimacy and social capital with entrepreneurial intention and its three antecedents: (1) attitude towards behaviour, (2) subjective norms and (3) perceived behavioural control and the entrepreneurial intention and behaviour relationship. The research model supported by the theory of planned behaviour and institutional theory unveiled the internalization of the sociocultural environment in female cognition of entrepreneurship. This study involved 325 female business students from 10 tertiary educational institutions in the Maldives. Two-stage cluster sampling was applied to gather primary data using a questionnaire analysed using SPSS and SmartPLS3. The disjoint two-stage approach applied, the measurement model followed by the structural model assessment.

The result validated the multidimensional intention model’s applicability in explaining female entrepreneurial intention and behaviour in SIDS. The Attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control are significant predictors of entrepreneurial intention, and entrepreneurial intention significantly predicts entrepreneurial behaviour. The finds also suggest that gender stereotyping is relatively low among the respondents; however, there is a need to increase social legitimacy and social capital. The influence of the sociocultural environment on female cognition of entrepreneurship is mainly through its impact on antecedents rather than its direct effect on entrepreneurial intention. The finding benefits the government, policymakers, and educational institutions to effectively promote the female entrepreneurship rate by promoting entrepreneurship spirit among female students focusing on the sociocultural environment.