Women’s Entrepreneurial Journeys Through Tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa
Entrepreneurship within the tourism industry is often presented as a way to enhance gender equality in Official Development Assistance (ODA) countries within Sub Saharan Africa. This is because tourism entrepreneurship is thought to offer women avenues for economic independence and leadership, within an industry that has a predominance of small firms and low entry barriers. And yet, there are significant gendered barriers influencing women’s potential to benefit from tourism entrepreneurship.
Women, for example, are less likely to follow sequential steps in business, in consequence to interrupted careers and family caring roles. Women are also more likely to experience workplace discrimination, stereotyping, and promotion inequities. Whilst important work has taken place in this area in recent years, it has tended to take a Global North focus, despite recognition regarding the importance of cultural context to entrepreneurial experience. As such, this study advanced understanding of women’s experiences of tourism entrepreneurship, by taking focus with Ghana and Nigeria to examine how spatial contexts influence gendered entrepreneurial pathways.
Principal Investigator:
Co-Investigators:
Aims and Objectives
The objectives of this project are:
- Analyse women’s pathways in tourism entrepreneurship to determine how the specificities of place shape women’s participation in entrepreneurship
- Develop evidence-based policy and practice recommendations to foster women’s entrepreneurship in tourism in Ghana and Nigeria
- Foster partnerships between UK and African institutions and develop the capabilities of participating researchers
Project Team and Partners
Principal Investigator:
Albert Kimbu, University of Surrey
Co-Investigators:
Anna de Jong, University of Glasgow
Ewoenam Afenyo-Agbe, University of Cape Coast
Ogechi Adeola, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University
Cristina Figueroa-Domecq, University of Surrey
Manuel Alector Ribeiro, University of Surrey
Project Publications and Links
- Kimbu, A., de Jong, A., Afenyo-Agbe, E., Adeola, O., Adam, I., Figueroa-Domecq, C. & Ribeiro, M. (In review). Recontextualising gender in entrepreneurial leadership. Annals of Tourism Research.
- Ribeiro, M., Adam, I., Kimbu, A., Afenyo-Agbe, E., Adeola, O., Figueroa-Domecq, C. & de Jong, A. (In review). Women entrepreneurship orientation, networks and firm performance in the tourism industry in resource-scarce contexts. Tourism Management.