The determinants influencing women’s micro-enterprises involvement in Malaysia

There is no doubt that the number of women involved in micro-enterprises is increasing globally. Women represent more than one-third of all people involved in entrepreneurial activity worldwide. However, women's micro-enterprises involvement in Malaysia experienced a drastic decline in participation, resulting in low financial freedom and poor economic growth in Malaysia. Lack of motivation, low-income family support, entrepreneurial skills, business networks and access to loans and financing have created enormous challenges for women's micro-enterprise involvement in Malaysia. As a result, SMEs have suffered a drastic loss of participation from women, and promoting women's micro-enterprises involvement would help increase adequate women's well-being and increase the growth of Malaysia's economy. This study examines the factors influencing women's micro-enterprise involvement in Malaysia. The phenomenal growth of women entrepreneurs and the gap in the current micro-enterprise involvement literature have necessitated this study. A quantitative approach is adopted as a survey strategy for data collection due to its ability to minimise biased questions and promote the positivism research model. Simple random sampling was adopted during the data collection. Primary data collection was carried out as a face-to-face self-administered survey, and questionnaires were emailed to the respondents. Out of 420 questionnaires distributed, 383 respondents were collected (91.2%) of the response and success rate from this survey. Descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, normality, reliability, correlation, and regression analysis are some of the statistical tools used to look at the data in this study with the SPSS. These results indicate a relationship between motivation, family support, entrepreneurial skills, business network, access to loans and financing, and women's micro-enterprise involvement in Malaysia. In addition, the regression analysis explores hypothesis testing. It further affirms the positive effects of motivation, family support, entrepreneurial skills, business network, and access to loans and financing on women's micro-enterprise involvement in Malaysia. This study confirms that women entrepreneurs focusing on micro-enterprise involvement would create platforms to increase business opportunities, improve management skills, and strategize easy ways to access loans and financing. In addition, it would further help build solid ties for family support, create job opportunities, and promote the economy of Malaysia effectively