Case of the Indigenous Textile Industry (Aso-Oke) in Nigeria
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Anifat Oladipupo WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ADAPTA- TION TO INDUSTRY TRANSFORMATION: THE CASE OF THE INDIGENOUS TEXTILE INDUSTRY (ASO-OKE) IN NIGERIA Faculty of Management and Business Master’s Thesis February 2021 ABSTRACT ANIFAT OLADIPUPO: Women entrepreneurship and adaptation to industry transformation: The case of the indigenous textile industry (ASO-OKE) in Nigeria Master’s Thesis Tampere University Leadership for Change (Sustainable Business Management) February 2021 This thesis fundamental objective is to examine indigenous women’s adaptation to industry transformation using Nigeria as a case study. The study is motivated by the gap in the knowledge of how women entrepreneurs in developing countries cope with industry transformation. It shed lights on unattended questions regarding the adaptability, challenges, and opportunities women entrepreneurs in developing countries perceived as they adapt their business processes to fit the requirements of a changing industry. The theoretical framework presents relevant theory on women entrepreneurship both in developing countries and Nigeria. Firstly, the theory of women entrepreneurship is broadly discussed, as well as the difficulties encountered by women entrepreneurs across the developing nations. Also, the entrepreneurial activities of women in Nigeria, the challenges, and opportunities they perceived in the course of doing their business are discussed. This study uses a qualitative approach with an inductive design. The empirical data were collected by conducting eleven in-depth interviews; the participants consist of women entrepreneurs in the indigenous textile (ASO-OKE) business, among which six (6) weavers, four (4) weavers and retailers, and one (1) retailer. The empirical findings suggest that the women entrepreneurs under study are going through an adaptation process due to a significant change in ASO-OKE designs, its usage, the consumers and that of the indigenous textile industry in general. Thus, their internal and external environments, as well as their personal motivational traits, play a significant role in their adaptation process. This implies that direct and indirect opportunities are perceived. In particular, new financial opportunities are the most notable as they enable the women to reinvest in new roles. While the challenges the women entrepreneurs face are similar to those identified in previous research, the present study shows that challenges such as deficiency or insufficiency access to proper education, training, and marketing problems are less relevant. However, new challenges such as lack of intellectual property rights protections are predominant in this case. This signifies a shift in the assumptions regarding challenges and opportunities for women entrepreneurs, and particularly among indigenous women entrepreneurs in most developing countries. The study also expands our understanding of the significance of gender on industry’s adaptation process. In this case, adaptation was facilitated by the availability of emotional support from immediate family. Finally, the study promotes and contributes to the preliminary, background, and existing knowledge on women entrepreneurship in indigenous industries as it provides new insights on how women entrepreneurs adapt their business, how they face new challenges, and how they explore new opportunities during industry transformation. Beyond these contributions, the study proposes a four- dimensional model that helps explain women's adaptation process in changing industries in developing countries. Keywords: entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs, adaptation, change and transformation, indigenous textile industry (ASO-OKE), challenges, opportunities The originality of this thesis has been checked using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Background ......................................................................................... 3 1.2. Research Problem and Questions ....................................................... 6 1.3. Research Aims and Objectives ............................................................ 7 1.4. Research Scope .................................................................................. 8 1.5. Research Structure .............................................................................. 8 1.6. Concepts and Definitions ................................................................... 10 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................................................................... 11 2.1. Women Entrepreneurship .................................................................. 11 2.2. Challenges of Women Entrepreneurship ........................................... 13 2.2.1. Financial Resources ....................................................................... 14 2.2.2. Lack of Infrastructure ..................................................................... 15 2.2.3. Lack of Access to Education and Professional Training ................. 15 2.2.4. Marketing Problems ....................................................................... 16 2.2.5. Lack of Female Exemplary ............................................................. 16 2.3. Women Entrepreneurship in Nigeria .................................................. 17 2.4. Opportunities and Challenges of Women Entrepreneurship in Nigeria 18 2.4.1. Finance Access .............................................................................. 19 2.4.2. Insufficient Training and Education ................................................ 20 2.4.3. Technological Access .................................................................... 21 2.4.4. Access to Market ............................................................................ 21 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 24 3.1. Research Philosophy ......................................................................... 24 3.2. Research Approach ........................................................................... 24 3.2.1. Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research ...................................... 25 3.3. Data Collection and Generation ......................................................... 25 3.3.1. Unstructured Interview ................................................................... 26 3.3.2. Introduction to Interviewees ........................................................... 26 3.3.3. Data Transcription .......................................................................... 29 3.4. Data Analysis and Interpretation ........................................................ 30 3.5. Ethics & Data Analysis Limitation ....................................................... 32 3.6. Case Study ........................................................................................ 33 3.7. Production of ASO-OKE - Process and Tools .................................... 34 3.8. ASO-OKE Types and Usage ............................................................. 37 4. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ..................................................................... 38 4.1. Trends and Transformation ................................................................ 38 4.1.1. Change in Production Design ......................................................... 38 4.1.2. Change in Usage ........................................................................... 40 4.2. Curtailments as a Result of Transformation ....................................... 41 4.2.1. Deficiency of Tangible and Intangible Resources ........................... 41 4.2.2. Product Protection Unfairness ........................................................ 43 4.2.3. Emotional and Psychological Disparity ........................................... 44 4.3. Direct and Indirect Prospects ............................................................. 45 4.3.1. Personal and Individual Benefit ...................................................... 45 4.3.2. Opportunity from Network .............................................................. 47 4.4. Internal and External Adaptivity Support ............................................ 47 4.4.1. Individual Proactiveness ................................................................. 48 4.4.2. Constant Training and Education ................................................... 49 4.5. Adaptation Model and Summary ........................................................ 50 5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .................................................................... 53 5.1. The Necessity of Adapting to Transformation .................................... 54 5.2. Recognising Opportunities and Dealing with Transformational Challenges 55 5.3. Minor Shift in Assumption in the Previous Literature .......................... 59 5.4. Summary and Study Contribution ...................................................... 60 5.5. Limitation and Future Study Recommendation .................................. 61 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 63 APPENDICES........................................................................................................ 71 List of Tables Table 1. Interviewees information summary ........................................................... 27 Table 2. Summary of Interviews conducted ...........................................................