Drivers and barriers of women's entrepreneurship in Serbia

Abstract

This paper explores some barriers of the current state of women's entrepreneurship in Serbia, as well as the drivers that will encourage, initiate and motivate women entrepreneurs to improve their business. The paper starts from determining the motives, intentions, desires and determination of women entrepreneurs to start their own business, but we also monitor the state of entrepreneurial will, knowledge and success of those women who started their entrepreneurial business and run it more or less successfully. After identifying the barriers that prevent the development of women's entrepreneurship in Serbia, the drivers are identified, the application of which can gradually be expected to eliminate the identified problems and point out the possibilities and directions of accelerating the development of women's entrepreneurship in Serbia. Comparing the barriers and drivers of women's entrepreneurship will provide an answer to the hypotheses we have set about the state, opportunities and prospects of women's entrepreneurship in Serbia. The paper is based on the research of the barriers and drivers of women's entrepreneurship, which we have conducted on a sample of 100 women entrepreneurs who are already in business, who started, inherited or otherwise entered the business. The research was conducted in several major cities in Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac, Šabac and Užice) during 2019 in pre-selected private companies.