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JEC
15,1
76
Received 25 April 2020
Revised 24 July 2020
29 September 2020
28 November 2020
Accepted 9 December 2020
Journal of Enterprising
Communities: People and Places in
the Global Economy
Vol. 15 No. 1, 2021
pp. 76-95
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1750-6204
DOI 10.1108/JEC-04-2020-0075
Challenges and enablers of women
entrepreneurs’ career advancement
in Vietnam’s coffee industry
Giang NT Nguyen
Faculty of Business and Law, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan Campus,
Australia and School of Business and Management, RMIT University,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Thinh Gia Hoang
School of Business and Management, RMIT University, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
and Centre for Applied Economics and Business Research, Hanoi, Vietnam
Tam Minh Nguyen
University of Economics, The University of Danang, Da Nang, Vietnam, and
Thanh Thien Ngo
International School of Business, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Centre for Applied Economics and
Business Research, Hanoi, Vietnam
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to explore the motivational factors and contextual facilitators of female
entrepreneurs in Vietnam’s coffee industry and also the barriers facing them.
Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts the grounded theory approach, using semi-
structured in-depth interviews with 31 women entrepreneurs in the coffee industry in the rural Central
Highlands of Vietnam.
Findings – This study found that necessity-driven factors play an important role in motivating female
entrepreneurs to advance their careers. However, these factors may be transformed into the opportunity-
driven motives. Furthermore, the findings suggest that Asia’s collectivism culture and family support
significantly affect the success of the women entrepreneurs, although gender inequality is not perceived as a
serious constraint in entrepreneurial activities.
Research limitations/implications – This study has implications for the literature of women
entrepreneurs regarding motivations and contextual influences in agricultural and rural areas of Vietnam.
However, the sample size is relatively small which limits the concept generation of the study. For further
research, a larger sample size with different business sectors should be considered to generate more explicit
findings.
Practical implications – The findings from this study can assist the policymakers in developing
strategies and governmental policies to support the career advancement of women entrepreneurs and
improving gender equality in Vietnam.
Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature about understanding the motives and the roles
of socioeconomic contexts in women’s entrepreneurial activities in agricultural and rural areas.
Keywords Vietnam, Women entrepreneurs, Rural development, Coffee industry
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction Vietnam’s
Entrepreneurship is identified as a vital part of international economic development. The coffee industry
Global Entrepreneurial Monitor (GEM, 2013) notes that entrepreneurship is a complicated
process which is influenced by specific socio-cultural contexts. The GEM mentioned that
entrepreneurship could be seen as a product of the socio-cultural and economic mechanisms
where the entrepreneurs reside. Thus, family, social behavior and both educational and
economic backgrounds greatly influence the entrepreneurial spirit of individuals. It is essential
to understand the underlying motivational factors for encouraging potential entrepreneurs to 77
become involved in business activities.
On top of that, women entrepreneurs have recently been highlighted as an important
factor in boosting the development in both established and emerging regions (Anderson,
2002). The participation of women entrepreneurs has varied remarkably throughout the
continents. Although women from all over the world have agreed that exerting
entrepreneurial spirit can affirm their roles in the public eye and create an appropriate
lifestyle (Marlow, 2002), the development of women entrepreneurs in emerging nations is
still in its infant stage, owing to socio-economic barriers (Çetindamar et al., 2012). As long
as there is a proper implementation of the planned approaches and if women are taken
into the center of the business activities as agents of social changes, although not as
beneficiaries, gender equality can be attained (Lenka and Agarwal, 2017). The 2012 GEM
(GEM, 2012) mentioned that Vietnam is one of the countries which has the lowest
proportion of women entrepreneurs, yet in 2018, nearly a third of businesses in Vietnam
were owned by women, 42% of which are small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and only
1% are large companies . The figure ranked Vietnam in sixth place out of 53 surveyed
nations, ahead of many developed countries such as the Europeans, the USA and China.
Despite an increase in the total number, the statistics also showed that Vietnamese
women ranked among the lowest in the surveyed markets in terms of “quality of
governance” (47), “entrepreneurial supporting factors” (48), “ease of doing business” (36)
and “cultural perception of women entrepreneurs” (25).
Besides, only a few studies have been investigating women-owned enterprises and most
of these researches are mainly focused on developed regions (Agarwal and Lenka, 2018;
Hisrich and Ayse Öztürk, 1999). Poggesi et al. (2015) and Honig and Paul Dana (2008) found
that extant studies of women entrepreneurship concentrated mostly on characteristics,
financial performance, managerial issues and the network of entrepreneurs in both
developing and developed countries, yet not on their underlying motivational and success
factors. Furthermore, OECD (2004a); Ratten (2014); and UNDP (2016) concluded that women,
and especially those in developing countries, have received lower standards of education
and social status and a higher responsibility for domestic duties. They have also been
lacking in role models, networks and funding in business sector. As a result, they do not
have enough confidence to become successful entrepreneurs. Poggesi et al. (2015) and
Agarwal et al. (2018) called for more research into female entrepreneurs, especially in the
rural areas of emerging countries.
We will be considering the coffee industry in Vietnam, which is the second largest coffee
producer and exporter in the world, with an average production rate that currently exceeds 25
million 60 kilogram bags. This industry attracts nearly a million workers each year, although
mostly in rural areas and one of the utmost critical concerns for development in the labor
workforce for this industry is the gender equality issue. This industry is still widely considered
to be a “men’s crop,” and the traditional image of coffee growers is mostly male-oriented.
Females are usually referred to as “farmers’ wives”; however, women play a more critical role
in farming in more recent times than is often expected (USAID, 2018). They are heavily
JEC involved as producers, cooperative leaders, collectors, traders, roasters, cuppers and coffee shop
15,1 owners throughout the coffee value chain. Recent studies have shown that women have
performed more than half of the work in the coffee farms. It was noted in USAID (2018) that
more women have become the first generation of coffee entrepreneurship who have their own
coffee manufacturing businesses. They have changed the traditional male-dominated ideas in
several production stages such as roasting, exporting and trading.
78 However, there has still been very little literature about women entrepreneurs in the
Vietnamese coffee industry. Given this absence of women entrepreneur studies in the coffee
industry, especially beyond the production stage, this study focuses on understanding the
underlying motives of women-led businesses in coffee value chains in Vietnam, along with
the contextual facilitators and constraints of the industry for women entrepreneurs.
In response to these calls, this study aims to shed light on literature about female
entrepreneurship in Vietnam, especially in the coffee industry in rural areas. This research
addresses the following research questions:

RQ1. Which motivational factors lead women to becoming involved in entrepreneurship

activities in the coffee industry in the rural areas of Vietnam?
RQ2. Which available facilitators support women entrepreneurs in the coffee industry
in the rural areas of Vietnam?
RQ3. Which existing constraints inhibit women entrepreneurs in the coffee industry in
the rural areas of Vietnam?
The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 31 female entrepreneurs in Vietnam’s
coffee industry by using semi-structured questionnaires to explore their real motives,
challenges and the facilitators during their entrepreneurial journey. The samples were collected
in the rural areas of the Central Highlands which are the main living areas of traditional
Vietnamese coffee farmers.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: the next part introduces research context,
theoretical background and relevant literature. This is followed by the discussion of the
research methodology and data collection procedure. After this are the research findings,
research discussion, research limitation and future research direction.

2. Review of literature
2.1 Theoretical lens of entrepreneurship
An entrepreneur is a person who possesses, establishes, operates and undertakes the risks of
an economic venture (Greve and Salaff, 2003). He or she is a person who is able to seek
opportunities and develop them into profitable businesses. Entrepreneurship can be seen as
a major driving force in national economic growth (Morris, 2001). Emerging nations are
more reliant on new dynamic start-up businesses to replace public organizations to boost the
economic development (Mazzarol et al., 1999).
There are several studies showing the discrepancy between the entrepreneurial activities
of men and women in terms of roles, motives, organizational processes and styles (Lenka
and Agarwal, 2017; Agarwal and Lenka, 2016). However, most of the results of male
entrepreneurs’ studies have been inadequately applied for women entrepreneurs (Maden,
2015). On top of that, most of the literature of female entrepreneurship is based on the data
from developed nations (Welter et al., 2006; Çetindamar et al., 2012).
Researchers differentiated the factors which influence a new start-up business into three
perspectives, which include personal characteristics, genders, socio-economic backgrounds
and enterprise-related variables (Tuzun and Takay, 2016). Several factors restrict the Vietnam’s
exploration of potential opportunities, which are also used to explain the reasons why coffee industry
entrepreneurs fail to succeed in their businesses (Okafor and Amalu, 2010). In this research,
the authors used the GEM framework in Kelley et al. (2011), the need for achievement theory
and the self-efficacy theory to investigate how the socio-economic environment (contextual
facilitators) affects the motivational factors of women entrepreneurs in the context of the
coffee industry in the rural areas of Vietnam.
79
2.2 Global entrepreneurship monitor framework and contextual facilitators
According to the GEM framework, to explore any entrepreneurship process in any country,
researchers have to examine the social, cultural, economic and political factors where these
entrepreneurs reside. Hindle (2010) mentioned that contextual facilitators are all components
of the environment in which all entrepreneurs are dependent players. They demand a
comprehensive approach in both research and also in practice to have a supportive
environment in which they can adopt an appropriate entrepreneurial strategy. Kelley et al.
(2011) concluded that entrepreneurial activity is not a heroic behavior of an individual,
regardless of the environment in which the activity is performed. It is the result of the
interaction of an individual’s consciousness of a chance and capability (motivation and
skills) to act upon this and the specific environment (culture, education) of the relevant
condition (family support) in which the entrepreneur is located (Naser et al., 2009; Agarwal
et al., 2020). For example, Ozar (2007) mentioned that female entrepreneurs receive various
reactions from their families when starting up their business. Although several husbands
are totally opposed to the decision of their wives running a venture, others provide
meaningful assistance. The different attitudes from families and their life partners can
strongly impact the entrepreneurial motives of women (Agarwal et al., 2018; Agarwal and
Lenka, 2015).
Also, Jennings and Brush (2013) and Kelley et al. (2011) mentioned there are two concepts
called “necessity” and “opportunity” entrepreneurs. They emphasized that the two greatest
driving forces for entrepreneurs are overcoming economic difficulties (necessity
entrepreneurship) and seeking external opportunities (opportunity entrepreneurship).
Depending on the availability of the institutional infrastructure, the stability of the
governmental policies and the differences of cultures and social norms, entrepreneurs would
react in different ways to achieve success (Agarwal et al., 2018; Agarwal and Lenka, 2015).
Vietnam is defined as a factor-driven nation which is in a transition to being an efficiency-
driven nation (Kelley et al., 2011; Nguyen et al., 2014). It can be seen that Vietnamese women
entrepreneurs have initially been “necessity” entrepreneurs to ease their financial burdens
and empower themselves. Even so, their motives may gradually change over time; many of
them have become entrepreneurs with more opportunity-driven motives (Nguyen et al.,
2014).

2.3 Motivational factors and relevant theories

Das (1999) classified women entrepreneurs into the following three groups: “chance,”
“forced” and “created” or “pulled” entrepreneurs (Table 1).
Besides, several studies agreed that the motives driving an entrepreneur could be
generally categorized into intrinsic (pull) and extrinsic (push) factors (Kirkwood, 2009;
Okafor and Amalu, 2010; Ozdemir, 2010; Maden, 2015). Intrinsic motivational factors are
factors related to personal characteristics, cultural norms and life-path circumstances. By
contrast, extrinsic factors are the motives associated with an external force such as financial
needs and subsidies. Classifying purposes into intrinsic and extrinsic factors help
JEC researchers to investigate the correlation between the motives and challenges that women
15,1 entrepreneurs have to encounter. Okafor and Amalu (2010) and Anggadwita and Dhewanto
(2016a, 2016b) stated that women entrepreneurs who had established businesses with
extrinsic motivational factors may experience more difficulties and might need a longer time
to achieve the necessary self-confidence. Nevertheless, these obstacles may make female
entrepreneurs more mentally durable and may become intrinsic motives in the future.
80 This study considers the need for achievement theory to explain the motivational factors
for women entrepreneurs. The need for achievement theory derives from the three needs
theory (McClelland, 1967). This theory mentions three types of needs that motivate people
including the need for achievement, the drive to excel and to achieve success; the need for
power, the drive to have impact, to be influential and to control others; the need for
affiliation, the desire to have friendly and close interpersonal relationships with others.
Entrepreneurship literature and researchers focus on the need for achievement (Shane et al.,
2003). Shane et al. (2003), Aramand (2013); Anggadwita et al. (2017); and Wu and Dagher
(2007) also stated that entrepreneurs with high achievements tend to put much more effort
into entrepreneurial activities, remain in business longer and eventually have more highly
successful opportunities. Collins et al. (2004) showed that achievement need is remarkably
related to both the choice of career and the performance of entrepreneurs.
Another theory used in this research which identifies the motives of women entrepreneurs
is the self-efficacy theory. According to Bandura (1994) and Chen et al. (1998), entrepreneurial
self-efficacy is the strength of a person’s belief about his or her own ability to perform several
roles and responsibilities of entrepreneurship successfully. Gist and Mitchell (1992) believed
that the people who think they can do the entrepreneurial tasks could perform better than those
who do not believe they can. That strength of belief enables people to become successful
entrepreneurs. Anggadwita and Dhewanto (2016a) showed that personal attitude as mediator
of women entrepreneurial intentions is hugely impacted by psychological characteristics and
individual competencies. They also proved that social perception is not directly influencing the
intention, yet significantly influencing personal attitude. Brockhaus and Honvitz (1986) proved
that self-efficacy could stimulate risk-taking abilities of entrepreneurs. Having a higher
confidence in the readiness to determine the outcomes of business goals, entrepreneurs will
have lower perception levels of failure and risk, as well as higher self-efficacy in risk-taking
than non-entrepreneurs (Jennings et al., 1996; Chen et al., 1998). Research by Wilson et al. (2007)
and Aramand (2013) confirmed that women have more confidence in their self-efficacy than
their male counterparts as they suffer more psychological and social obstacles when
establishing and running their own business. The challenges that businesswomen may

Categories of entrepreneurs Main reason/motivation

“Chance” entrepreneurs To keep busy

Was hobby/special interest
Family/spouse had business
“Forced” entrepreneurs Financial/needed the money
Control over time/flexibility
Challenge, try something on one’s own
Table 1.
Show others I could do it
Female entrepreneur “Created” or “pulled” entrepreneurs To be independent
groups by reasons/ Self-satisfaction
motivations Example to children
(Das, 1999) Provide employment for others/do something worthwhile
encounter include financial difficulties, management skills, family support, government rules Vietnam’s
and regulations, infrastructure and other supporting facilities that might affect the coffee industry
development of their business (Karatas-Ozkan et al., 2010; Williams and Williams, 2012;
Kabasakal et al., 2016). Furthermore, a male-dominated society is a tremendous constraint on
women entrepreneurs. The gender inequality suffered by females in both private and public
sectors, and especially in rural areas, hugely limits their contributions to the entrepreneurship
community.
81
2.4 Women entrepreneurship in agricultural and rural regions
The current entrepreneurial literature, including the GEM framework, is mainly based on
the analysis of urban samples, so much so that there has been a thirst for enriching the
research of women entrepreneurs in rural regions. There are several reasons for this
phenomenon. Marshall and Samal (2006) and Sternberg (2009) stated that, since urban areas
have been providing entrepreneurs with more attractive socio-economic resources and
opportunities, the number of urban entrepreneurs has been outweighed by that of its rural
counterparts. Civic entrepreneurs gain more advantages in education, family support,
gender equality, training and institutional support than their rural counterparts. Besides,
most of the rural entrepreneurs are necessity entrepreneurs who have transformed their
personal hobbies such as needlework or baking bread, cake and pastries (Sternberg, 2009;
Sivenesan, 2014). Meanwhile, urban entrepreneurs include more opportunists.
Besides, the role of agricultural entrepreneurship in rural areas has somehow just been
recognized in developed countries and is considered to be a vital tool to boost rural
development (OECD, 2004b; Driga et al., 2009). According to Macke and Markeley (2006) and
Dabson (2001), rural entrepreneurial-based development can play a vital role in stimulating
American rural regions through promoting the development of human and civic
entrepreneurship and rural economic policy. However, this topic has not yet been adequately
researched in developing contexts (Nguyen et al., 2014).
In this study, the researchers focused on the two key concepts in the GEM model called
“socio-cultural environment” and “governmental support policies.” The first concept
investigated phenomena which are related to the current changes in societies which have
been occurring in agriculture in rural communities and the cultural norms influencing
Vietnamese coffee entrepreneurs in the rural areas. The second concept considered the
governmental support for women rural entrepreneurs in coffee in Vietnam.

3. Enterprising community- and women-owned enterprises in Vietnam

In Vietnam, the private sectors were not officially recognized during the command and
planning economy. Nevertheless, entrepreneurs of the sector still existed and covered the
vacuum that the government did not cover. Since the launch of “Doi Moi” policy
(Renovation) at the 6th Party Congress, the private sector has been officially recognized as a
part of the development of the socialist-oriented multi-sector economy. The introduction of
the Enterprise Law in Vietnam in 1999 led to a boom in the development of domestic private
sector entrepreneurs. In recent years, more than 100,000 new enterprises have been
registered annually (around 120,000 in 2017), and approximately 60,000 have exited the
market. In 2019, the entrepreneurs of the private sector invested over US$32bn in the
economy, which accounted for 45.3% of the total social capital investment. This also
contributed around 40% of the total gross domestic product (GDP) and has been a key
contributor to economic growth.
With regards to the entrepreneurs in the coffee industry in Vietnam, private businesses
run nearly 90% of the coffee production in Vietnam today. The International Coffee
JEC Organization (2019) reported that, in the farming stage, about 85% of the total production
15,1 area is run by household businesses. The state-owned and foreign invested companies are
more responsible for trading and exporting activities.
Besides, the International Finance Corporation (2017) stated that women represented
approximately 50% of coffee workers in Lam Dong and play a vital role in coffee cultivation,
processing and marketing. However, they are often excluded from training and other career
82 development opportunities and therefore tend to be concentrated in the lower nodes of the
coffee value chain. They mentioned that, in total, only 96,000 women owned enterprises
compared to the 357,000 men who owned enterprises, as shown in Table 2 below.
Vietnamese families mostly follow Confucian principles which are structured as male-
headed families (Ratten, 2014). Luke et al. (2007) and Ratten (2014) stated that the position of
a woman in her family is to follow the male member, and the male can have all the rights to
make any decisions for the family. Women are also expected to have full responsibility for
household and childcare tasks as well as complying with their husband and in-laws’
requests to preserve the family harmony. They should be passive and hardworking, and
staying within these social norms could impact on their involvement in the workplace and
decision-making forums.
Meunier et al. (2017) showed that nearly 71% of working Vietnamese females are self-
employed (compared to 60% of males). They are mostly employed in agriculture and
services sectors. However, the data also showed that most of them are employed as unpaid
labor on family farms and running a small family business rather than the possessors of
SMEs. A commonly held consciousness is that females mostly manage the family company
which is traditionally owned by the man.

4. Methodology and research methods

4.1 Methodology
This research adopted the grounded theory approach by Strauss (1987) to shed light on
female entrepreneurship in the coffee industry in Vietnam. The authors focused on
exploring their key motives for starting their own businesses, the current contextual
facilitators and existing constraints that they have experienced in their entrepreneurial
activities. A semi-structured in-depth interview technique was used in this study. This
technique was appropriate as it provides researchers with adequate standards and
flexibility to explore the under-researched phenomenon to generate new theories and
support forming better policies for the future (Dana and Dana, 2005; Groenland and Dana,
2019).
During the interviews, the authors asked additional side- or sub-questions to the
respondents to expatiate their responses and find the actual answers for the research questions.
In the case of overlapping answers, the researchers would not discuss these issues again. A
comprehensive analysis of women entrepreneurs is necessary because the concept is only valid

Types of SMEs Women-owned Men-owned Total

Table 2.
Micro 55,049 210,543 265,592
Number of formally
Small 36,139 126,951 163,090
registered enterprises Medium 3,864 14,545 18,409
by size and gender Large 854 5,022 5,876
(General Statistics Total enterprises 95,906 357,061 452,967
Office, 2015) SMEs 40,003 141,496 181,499
for a specific region. Therefore, interviews with such women must be analyzed thoroughly to Vietnam’s
conceptualize the relevant factors in women entrepreneurship. coffee industry
4.2 Data collection procedure
The researchers used a purposive non-probability sampling method to collect data (Agarwal
et al., 2020; Hair et al., 2015). Initially, the authors contacted governmental coffee
associations in Dak Lak to seek help in organizing the interview appointments with local 83
female coffee entrepreneurs in the province. The researchers then used a snowball sampling
method to approach other women entrepreneurs in the industry in other provinces including
Kon Tum, Lam Dong and Gia Lai, as it is difficult to approach interviewees without a
reference. The respondents selected also had to fulfill a set of standards for reliability and
validity. Even though women contribute significantly to the Vietnamese coffee industry,
most of the public coffee manufacturing companies are led by men. However, women
account for the higher proportion in private coffee enterprises. The authors were able to
connect to 31 coffee manufacturing enterprises led by women in several rural districts of
Dak Lak, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Nong and Lam Dong provinces of the Central Highlands
region. This location accounts for more than 90% of the total coffee farming area in Vietnam
(International Coffee Organization, 2019). The Central Highlands contributed around 9% of
the total GDP of Vietnam and has several advantages for developing the economy; however,
it remains as one of the poorest regions in Vietnam. The poverty rate is around 20% which
is almost twice as much as the national average.
All face-to-face interviews, which lasted for an average of 1 h each, were recorded and
conducted in the Vietnamese language at the respondents’ company sites from June to
December 2019. The interview questions were chosen from previous researches on women
entrepreneurs in other contexts and were obtained from previous publications. The
questions were translated into Vietnamese and reworded by the back-translation method to
ensure that the respondents could understand the questions easily. The authors also wrote
down important field notes during the interview. The seven compulsory questions asked are
listed below, and personal information was also asked. Depending on the flow of the
interview, the order of the questions may be different.

Q1. How long ago did you start your business?

Q2. Why did you decide to start a business in the coffee industry?
Q3. Did you have any other reasons why you started doing your business?
Q4. Which are the challenges that you have experienced in doing business?
Q5. Do you have any difficulties in running this business as a woman?
Q6. Which are the available facilitators that you can have during your entrepreneurial
activities?
Q7. Do you have any other support in running this business as you are a woman?
After each interview, recorded files were transcribed precisely into texts by research
assistants and translated from Vietnamese into English by professional translators. Each
interview was read and analyzed individually by all authors who then proceeded with the
coding process to understand the phenomenon.
The research was followed by the process mentioned in Figure 1 to identify proper
themes and findings. The interviewees’ answers were assigned preliminary codes, including
JEC words, word phrases and a sentence to describe the content. These codes were initially
15,1 explored through reviewing relevant extant literature. Different responses in the interviews
can have the same codes. For example, “earn money” and “pay loans” have the same
meanings and are coded as “financial difficulties.” The explorative thematic analysis by
Miles and Huberman (1994) was used to develop several inductive themes from the
interview transcripts and to provide a list of the phenomena of entrepreneurial women and
84 their inter-relations. Each theme was labeled appropriately to complete the analysis. The
codes were firstly identified by the authors, and then all codes were reviewed by another
three academics or research assistants who are familiar with the coding methods to ensure
the reliability of the codes. Both English and Vietnamese transcripts were considered to
avoid the misunderstanding in allocating the codes. The reviewers discussed any
discrepancies until all corrections had been made to the code list as needed. The authors also
used Excel to support the sorting and analyzing process. A final code list was complete after
a full consideration. A total of 142 codes, including 41 codes related to motivational factors,
46 codes relevant to existing constraints and 55 codes related to facilitators were created for
this research.

4.3 Reliability and validity of the interview data

To ensure the credibility, quality and acceptability of the findings, the reliability and
validity of collected data should be confirmed. According to Franklin and Ballan (2001) and
Dana and Dana (2005), in the first instance, the validity is assessed by the content validity
including the open-ended questions for the interviews being carefully examined and
arranged after all the unclear and confused questions are amended or deleted. Next,
triangulation and member check methods are used to ensure internal validity. The author
collects data from visiting the manufacturing site and local public coffee organizations in the
triangulation method stage. The authors always try to monitor the explicitness of the data
as much as possible. The content is then collected by the researchers and given back to the
interviewees and local authorities to re-confirm that the data they answered before is correct
during the member check method stage. Finally, external validity is assessed by
documenting the different answers from interviewees and examining the daily

Research quesons

Literature review

Factor (code) exploraons

Interviews (Qualitave approach)

Code indenficaons

Code modificaons and connecons

Explorave themac analysis

Findings and discussions

Figure 1.
Steps for Conclusion
methodology of the Source: Modified from Agarwal et al.,
research
(2020)
entrepreneurial activities of respondents for a week to verify the interview information. Vietnam’s
Furthermore, internal and external reliability was examined. In a different research period, coffee industry
other co-authors used the same research techniques to re-check the data again from the same
interviewees and examine the entrepreneurs’ activities to ensure that the provided data is
trustful. The combination of observations from companies’ sites, videos or audio recordings
of interviews and document analyses ensure the reliability and validity of the study.

5. Findings
85
5.1 Demographic information of respondents
Out of 31 interviewees, 35.5% had completed tertiary education and 41.9% had a diploma
degree; 71% were married and 19.3% were single. Most of them are over 35 years old with
over 10 years’ experience. The detailed profiles of interviewees are shown in Appendix.
Table 3 shows the demographic information of the sample.

5.2 Entrepreneurship drives

Of these 41 codes for analyzing the motivational factors, 35 codes were grouped as extrinsic,
whereas only six codes were grouped as intrinsic motives. In response to the questions,
“Why did you decide to start this business in the coffee industry?” and “Do you have any
other reasons when you start doing your business?”, 83.87% (26 women) of the respondents
mentioned that the main reasons were for necessity motives, whereas 16.13% (5 women)
stated opportunity motives. The most frequent answer was “need money for the family.” A
total of 35 codes of extrinsic motivational factors were categorized into the following sub-
categories:
 need money for survival (42.86%);
 raise kids (22.86%);
 have a job (20%); and
 help family business (14.28%).

Demographic information Frequency (%)

Ages
<35 years old 4 12.9
35–45 years old 21 67.7
>45 years old 6 19.4
Years of experience
<5 years 2 6.5
5–10 years 7 22.6
10–15 years 13 41.9
>15 years 9 29
Marital status
Single 6 19.3
Married 22 71
Divorced/widowed 3 9.7
Education level
High school 7 22.6 Table 3.
Diploma/college 13 41.9 Demographics of
Tertiary education 11 35.5 respondents
JEC E1, who was the owner of a coffee powder production firm in Dak Nong, said:
15,1 [. . .] I was a freelancer; I did not have any official job. I have kids to raise. The only thing I had at
that time was the experience of collecting coffee beans, but it was not good enough to feed all of
us. I had to decide to start doing something. If not, we would starve. I did not have much money,
so I bought raw coffee beans to roast and re-sell [. . .]
Similarly, E25, who was the CEO of a coffee bean exporting company in Kon Tum,
86 mentioned:
[. . .] I followed my mom to pick coffee beans in the family’s coffee farms in this local area. At that
time, some representatives of big companies came to my area to buy raw coffee beans, so I helped
my parents to deal with them as my parents were not able to finalize the contracts with them. I
had already graduated with a business degree from a university in Ho Chi Minh city. It was in
1993 and it has always been very challenging to work in this coffee industry [. . .].
Meanwhile, only a few respondents stated that the reasons for establishing the business
were “intrinsic motives.” From the seven intrinsic motive codes, most of them chose “want to
develop the local coffee industry” (five times). Other groups included “gaining new insight”
(once) and “want to help others” (once).
E29, the owner of a coffee powder production firm in Lam Dong, mentioned:
[. . .] My hometown is here, but I worked for a foreign exporting coffee enterprise in Ho Chi Minh
City. I came here to find coffee sources for my company. I have seen a lot of the difficulties for
farmers since I was a kid, and their life is still impoverished. I decided to establish a company
which collects green beans and then processes them to export to develop this local industry
[. . .].

5.3 Contextual facilitators

The authors examined several facilitators supporting female entrepreneurs in the
Vietnamese coffee industry in terms of the “socio-cultural environment” and “governmental
support policies.” One of the highlights from the interviews was that all interviewees agreed
that family support is significant for them. The most successful female entrepreneurs
admitted that their husbands had supported them a lot in the running of their businesses.
Besides that, comprehensive market information provides them with golden opportunities
in trading coffee with foreign partners. The authors found that, of the 55 codes of
facilitators, women entrepreneurs appreciate the support from their family, business
partners and society more than they do the government’s supporting policies. Besides, they
do not feel any differences in doing business with their male counterparts. The list of
facilitator codes is presented in Table 4 below.

Codes Frequencies (%)

Support from husband in taking care of family 12 21.82

Trust from business partners 10 18.18
Support from local Women’s union 9 16.36
Family relatives work in the same business 7 12.73
Updated information from the local coffee association 7 12.73
Husband shares business decisions 5 9.09
Table 4. Local authorities provide incentive schemes for SMEs 5 9.09
List of facilitators Total 55 100
 E4, an owner of coffee powder production company in Dak Nong, confirmed: Vietnam’s
[. . .] women are more respected in the coffee industry because they are hard-working. Women coffee industry
accounted for a higher proportion in private Coffee Trading Companies, while men accounted for
a higher proportion in the public Coffee Manufacturing Companies [. . .].
E14, a domestic coffee trading owner, in Dak Lak, said:
[. . .] I feel very confident in the role of a businesswomen. I think it is easier for me (as I am a 87
woman) when I deal with male counterparts as they said that I am more reliable and thoughtful,
so I can get more contracts for my business. Women are always believed to be better negotiators.

5.4 Existing constraints

Similar to the contextual facilitators, this study investigated the existing constraints of the
“socio-cultural environment” and “governmental support policies” when women
entrepreneurs are doing their business in the coffee industry. Table 5 below shows the
different categories for 46 codes of constraints stated by the respondents.
In terms of the social-cultural environment, more than half of women entrepreneurs
responded that their biggest challenge in the market is that locals tend to prefer foreign
coffee brands. Besides that, fake coffee products in the market, lack of managerial know-
how and family issues are the typical social-cultural constraints for female entrepreneurs.
However, only 4 out of 31 female entrepreneurs mentioned that they believe that male
entrepreneurs have more privileges in this industry.
E11, an owner of a coffee roasting company in Dak Lak, mentioned:
[. . .] One of the most difficult problems from running this business is that I have the responsibility
for everything. You need to know about IT issues, purchasing, finance and marketing. When I
was a professional worker, I only needed to specialize in one area. I think that all female
entrepreneurs would face this problem and the level of effectiveness would fall. In particular, as I
am an old and married woman, I cannot learn fast; I have lost my memory and I cannot put a
hundred per cent of my efforts into this business. I still have to take care of the family; my son
needs me more than he needs his dad [. . .].
E7, an owner of a coffee powder production company in Dak Lak, also stated:
[. . .] Although my husband supports me in running this business, he cannot generally take very
good care of the family. In Vietnam, the role of women in feeding children and taking care of
parents is very significant. Women expect to do well, both in their business and in taking care of

Codes Frequency (%)

Locals prefer foreign coffee brands 10 21.74

Family issues 8 17.39
Poor quality and cheap coffee products in the market 7 15.21
Insufficient availability of funds 5 10.87
Lack of incentive schemes for sustainable coffee products 4 8.70
Unexpected price fluctuations 4 8.70
Gender inequality 3 6.52
Lack of managerial know-how 2 4.35
Lack of technological training for e-commerce, etc 2 4.35 Table 5.
Bureaucracy 1 2.17 List of constraint
Total 46 100 codes
JEC the family. When my children were 3 to 6 years old, it was challenging to spend time on this
business, and I did not have much profit at that time. However, now they are older, I have more
15,1 time for my business [. . .].
Meanwhile, insufficient availability of funds, bureaucracy, lack of incentive schemes for
sustainable coffee products and a lack of technological training for entrepreneurs to get
familiar with e-commerce are amongst the typical constraints in the governmental support
88 policy group. When asked about training, all of the participants stated that they have had
very limited chances to approach the sustainable coffee incentive programs even though it is
essential for entrepreneurs, as customers are more demanding for organic coffee. Half of
them had completed the university degree in relevant majors such as business
administration or agricultural management, and they could research the information for
themselves.
E3, an owner of a coffee roasting business in Dak Nong, mentioned:
[. . .] The biggest challenge I have faced is E-commerce, and online advertisements are not
advantageous to me. Previously, sellers put several additives in the coffee powder, or they sell
coffee mixed with corn and soya beans, so that it is tough for the real coffee to survive in the
market. Consumers in Vietnam do not know much about how real pure coffee tastes. Thus, my
real coffee is not their natural choice [. . .].
E5, an owner of a coffee bean collecting business in Dak Nong, stated:
[. . .] Previously, due to the fluctuation in the price, there have been many small- and medium-
sized coffee traders who have gone bankrupt and the government should have the policies to
stabilize the domestic coffee price [. . .]” then “[. . .] The farmers and I really want to apply new
technology, but we need more support from all of the stakeholders to let it come to the real value
added to the coffee farms [. . .].
E10, an owner of a coffee bean exporting business in Dak Lak, said:
[. . .] International demand for high quality and organic coffee has increased significantly, so, if
the government do not have more policies to support us in investing in organic coffee products,
we will be left behind [. . .].

6. Discussion
The findings from our interviews with women entrepreneurs in the coffee industry in
Vietnam confirmed that most of the respondents were “necessity-driven” or “forced”
entrepreneurs. All responses represented a survival problem and a need to generate
additional income to cover family expenses. Only a very small amount of evidence suggests
that female entrepreneurs had established their new businesses with “opportunity-driven”
thoughts. This finding is consistent with Tuzun and Takay (2016) and Sivenesan (2014),
who each confirmed that most women entrepreneurs establish new ventures with more
necessity motives. The females who participated are greatly driven by an urge to improve
the income for their family. These unique outcomes can be relevant to the socio-economic
characteristics of rural areas in Vietnam. The poverty rate in the area is higher than the
national average, and people there are mostly dependent on agriculture. Most female
entrepreneurs who are trading responded that they started their business in collecting and
roasting coffee decades ago before establishing trading businesses. They stated that they
have not yet participated in a training session and that all businesses have been running
without much experience. They have overcome many different challenges arising from their
lack of experience.
 However, in those conditions, self-efficacy seems to be a crucial characteristic for them to Vietnam’s
defeat failure. They became stronger in mind, more creative, more enthusiastic and worked coffee industry
much harder. This study confirmed that, with the support of their self-efficacy, the initial
extrinsic motivational factors could make female entrepreneurs more mentally durable, and
this may become their intrinsic motives in time. This outcome has been visualized in the
model below (Figure 2).
It is also noted that there was a remarkable lack of supporting schemes for organic and
certified coffee products. In some cases, the women paid for their training costs because they
89
did not know of any available government-sponsored programs. International markets
demand a lot from certified coffee products which have, for example, 4 C Rainforest
Certificates, so the government should pay more attention to developing these programs for
entrepreneurs. In terms of funding a new business, the financial funds provided by the local
government under micro-credit schemes were relatively restricted and those who have good
relationships with the state or bank staff should be more prioritized. Although women’s
unions and coffee associations have already been reminded, they should play a more
dominant role in promoting the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the vital material sources
areas such as Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Lam Dong to develop the coffee industry. Our
findings are also compatible with the OECD (2017) and GEM (2013, 2015) reviews, which
highlight that, in developing countries, women entrepreneurs require training, seminars and
workshops on sustainable development, entrepreneurial know-how and financial
management from government bodies. The respondents all agreed that competitive
environment has higher impact on entrepreneurial intentions than government support that
align to the research of Anggadwita and Dhewanto (2016a, 2016b) and Anggadwita et al.
(2015). However, Anggadwita and Dhewanto (2016b) showed that although government
support does not have strong impact on entrepreneurial intentions, it has strong influence on
the competitive environment.
In terms of socio-cultural issues, women entrepreneurs agreed that their gender was a
challenge owing to the gender roles constructed by societies. It was evident that socially
constructed gender roles have been a significant constraint for female entrepreneurs. The
respondents showed that, in Vietnam (similar to other Asian cultures), women have to be in
charge of the domestic duties. Interestingly, the women we approached also retained this
fact, although they did not bring up this issue as significant gender inequality. Nonetheless,
women in Vietnam can definitely cope with this situation as they believed that it is
inappropriate to expect a man to take care of the family. They highly appreciate the support
of their husband and family. Besides, gladly, it is not a serious concern in the local
community if women can earn more money than their husbands through their
entrepreneurial endeavors.

Figure 2.
Proposed framework
of motives and self-
efficacy of women
entrepreneurs in the
coffee industry in
Vietnam
JEC In contrast to the research of Tuzun and Takay (2016), Gudeta and van Engen (2018); and
15,1 Kabasakal et al. (2016), which concluded that women entrepreneurs are less helpful to their
male counterparts, female entrepreneurs in Vietnam are confident with their business positions.
The participants confirmed that, as a woman, they could gain more favor in dealing with their
business partners. In the Vietnamese coffee value chain, women entrepreneurs have
contributed more in the collecting and trading stages. They are known as better negotiators
90 who can arrange the deals with farmers and other trading partners. In the production stage,
more males contribute to the business than females. Moreover, most of the interviewees have
experienced living in the transition of the socio-economic condition called “Doi Moi,” and they
all agreed that the current society in Vietnam is much more open than before and is giving
more chances for women to run their own businesses.

7. Conclusion
The research contributes to the women entrepreneurship literature in a number of different
aspects. Firstly, this is one of the first women entrepreneurship researches specifically
targeted to the Vietnamese coffee industry. It provides opportunities for academics and
practitioners to understand insights into motivational factors, facilitators and the challenges
for women entrepreneurs in a specific under-researched context. Most other researches have
been conducted in the industrial and service sectors in developed nations. Second, through
its qualitative nature, this study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the
importance of the socio-cultural differences between Vietnam and other developing
countries such as India, Indonesia, Turkey and Mongolia in women’s entrepreneurial
activities. Even though women entrepreneurs in Vietnam still feel that gender inequality
may be a hindrance, they are very positive that they are not less advantaged than their male
counterparts. Our findings can be expanded for further studies on female entrepreneurship
in different nations and industries. Eventually, the appropriate literature should provide a
full picture of where the dynamism of women entrepreneurs originated and how to support
women’s entrepreneurial activities in the emerging regions.
In terms of limitations, it is important to recognize that our findings cannot be
generalized owing to our small sample size. Thus, further studies with larger sample sizes in
different industries and nations are necessary to strengthen our conclusions. Moreover,
other scholars should explore the process of extrinsic motives being turned into the intrinsic
motives and in which condition those transitions may result in successful
entrepreneurships. However, the authors believe that the above findings provide a crucial
first stage toward a broader understanding of the contextual facilitators and constraints
affecting females seeking opportunities to participate in agricultural entrepreneurship in
and around rural Vietnam. This research should be a guide to policymakers and fellow
researchers who are interested in developing the rural and agrarian entrepreneurship
ecosystem in developing nations, such as Vietnam, by identifying the social contextual
factors that drive facilitators and ease the constraints to support women who are starting up
their own businesses.

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Appendix Vietnam’s
coffee industry

Focused function of the coffee Education Experience Marital Interview

No/code business Place Age background (year) status time

E1 Coffee powder production Dak Nong 36 Tertiary education 13 years Married 75 min
E2 Coffee bean collecting Dak Nong 41 High school 20 years Married 50 min 95
E3 Coffee roasting Dak Nong 41 Diploma 15 years Married 60 min
E4 Coffee powder production Dak Nong 43 Diploma 14 years Married 55 min
E5 Coffee bean collecting Dak Nong 38 High school 11 years Married 45 min
E6 Coffee roasting Dak Nong 28 High school 6 years Single 75 min
E7 Coffee powder production Dak Lak 39 Diploma 12 years Married 50 min
E8 Domestic coffee trading Dak Lak 55 Tertiary education 32 years Single 45 min
E9 Coffee bean collecting Dak Lak 42 Diploma 3 years Divorce 37 min
E10 Coffee bean exporting Dak Lak 37 Tertiary education 9 years Married 80 min
E11 Coffee roasting Dak Lak 31 High school 14 years Single 60 min
E12 Coffee bean exporting Dak Lak 40 Tertiary education 17 years Married 65 min
E13 Coffee bean collecting Dak Lak 43 Diploma 12 years Married 55 min
E14 Domestic coffee trading Dak Lak 30 High school 7 years Single 45 min
E15 Domestic coffee trading Dak Lak 42 Tertiary education 9 years Married 70 min
E16 Coffee powder production Gia Lai 40 Diploma 3 years Married 55 min
E17 Coffee bean collecting Gia Lai 44 High school 20 years Married 60 min
E18 Coffee bean collecting Gia Lai 60 Diploma 25 years Widow 55 min
E19 Domestic coffee trading Gia Lai 53 Tertiary education 11 years Divorced 45 min
E20 Coffee powder production Kon Tum 41 Diploma 14 years Married 75 min
E21 Coffee bean exporting Kon Tum 37 Tertiary education 25 years Married 90 min
E22 Coffee powder production Kon Tum 38 Diploma 7 years Married 50 min
E23 Domestic coffee trading Kon Tum 33 Tertiary education 9 years Single 40 min
E24 Domestic coffee trading Kon Tum 52 Diploma 12 years Married 60 min
E25 Coffee bean exporting Kon Tum 46 Tertiary education 14 years Married 50 min
E26 Coffee powder production Lam Dong 38 Diploma 20 years Married 60 min
E27 Domestic coffee trading Lam Dong 42 Tertiary education 12 years Married 70 min
E28 Coffee bean collecting Lam Dong 40 High school 22 years Married 65 min
Table A1.
E29 Coffee powder production Lam Dong 36 Tertiary education 13 years Married 75 min
E30 Domestic coffee trading Lam Dong 37 Diploma 8 years Married 55 min Profiles of
E31 Coffee powder production Lam Dong 50 Diploma 27 years Single 80 min interviewee

Corresponding author
Giang NT Nguyen can be contacted at: giang.nguyenngotinh@gmail.com

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