Saudi Women’s Entrepreneurial Intention: the social construction of norms and perception

As Saudi Arabia is a transitional economy, its population may experience an important set of societal changes that challenge traditional representations of entrepreneurship (Mueller, 2004). This provides a useful time-frame to capture how Saudi men and more specifically women may develop and articulate determinist and agentive approaches in relation to the gendered barriers and opportunities in entrepreneurial processes. In 2012, we conducted a study of the entrepreneurial intention of 163 university students (75 women/88 men). Saudi female students demonstrate a very high rate of entrepreneurial desirability. However, a significant majority of these respondents are more reserved concerning the feasibility of their projects. Moreover, they are ready to negotiate a set of compromises with collective norms in order to concretize their entrepreneurial self-accomplishment. In doing so, they may become major agents of transformation within their own country in terms of entrepreneurial education and its support system.