Women Entrepreneurs’ Resource Mobilization in Fragile Contexts

We show how women entrepreneurs in fragile contexts mobilize required resources despite substantial barriers imposed upon them. By conducting a qualitative inductive study of 24 women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan, one of the world’s most fragile contexts, we illustrate how women entrepreneurs adopt four mechanisms – spatial dispersion, spatial bridging, family inclusion, and camouflaging – to overcome the danger-and socio-cultural norms-related barriers to successfully mobilize required resources. Our findings make important theoretical contributions to the literature on women’s entrepreneurship and resource mobilization.