Embeddedness & (dis)empowerment in women tourism entrepreneurship

Introduction Embeddedness especially in developing countries triggers opportunities for networking and thereby has the potential of enabling women entrepreneurs to access resources for development (Le & Nguyen, 2009) which may facilitate subsequent business creation and thus their empowerment (Datta & Gailey, 2012; Amine & Staub, 2009). However, while embeddedness may empower women entrepreneurs, it may also lock them into a network (Mair & Marti, 2006) that disempowers their ability to maximize the value creation potential of their enterprises thereby reducing their societal impacts. The purpose of this paper which is a work in progress is to empirically explore how social embeddedness empowers and/or disempowers women entrepreneurs in the hospitality and tourism industry in an African country context. We address two key questions: To what extent does social embeddedness facilitate the (dis)empowerment of women (social) entrepreneurs? In what ways does empowerment affect women entrepreneurs and shape their actions as they sought to create and operate H&T enterprises with an embedded social value? To answer these questions we integrate concepts from social entrepreneurship, empowerment and social embeddedness literature (e.g. Duffy et al., 2015; Di Domenico et al, 2010; Zahra et al., 2009) in the context of the role of women as owner-managers of small tourism (social) enterprises in base-of-the-pyramid emerging markets. Methods & potential contribution to impact: Through thematic content analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs of micro and small tourism firms (STFs) (18), related government (03), social welfare and community development agencies and NGOs (03) in Cameroon, we analyze the relationship between embeddedness and women (dis)empowerment from the perspective of women entrepreneurs who have experienced it. In so doing, we not only illuminate how and why embeddedness (dis)empowers women entrepreneurs and their actions and decisions but more importantly we develop a framework within which social embeddedness if well-articulated can serve as a powerful tool in unlocking the potentials and improving the standard of living of many women in developing country destinations. Findings & Discussion: This is a work in progress and there are no substantial findings yet. However, we will have some findings to present and discuss by the time of the conference.