4. Discussions, conclusion and implications

This study aims to understand the motivational factors, personality traits and the challenges facing female entrepreneurs, employing at least five personnel, and who, within the scale of North Cyprus, can be considered extrinsically successful. The results show that the majority of these successful female entrepreneurs' key motivational drives are pull factors rather than push factors and that even those who prioritised a push factor as their dominant reason for embarking on their own businesses were also subject to at least one additional pull factor. Increasing personal wealth, their depth of interest in the business sector, fulfilment of their professional passion, and working more flexible hours were the most important pull factors indicated by the respondents, and this is consistent with the literature. Job dissatisfaction and being in the second generation in a family business were the only two push factors demonstrated by the female entrepreneurs we interviewed.

References

Routledge Press; 1993

Journal. 2012;24(1/2):1-6

59-76

notu. 2017

[1] Allen S, Truman C. Women in Business: Perspectives on Women Entrepreneurs. London:

Women Entrepreneurs as Employers http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80309 151

[2] Çetindamar D, Gupta VK, Karadeniz EE, Egrican N. What the numbers tell: The impact of human, family and financial capital on women and men's entry into entrepreneurship in

[3] GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor). Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Women Report. 2012. Available from: http://gemconsortium.org/report/48545/. [Accessed: 26 March 2018]

[4] GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor). Global Entrepreneurship United States Report. 2015. Available from: http://gemconsortium.org/report/49480. [Accessed: 26 March 2018]

[5] OECD/EU. Policy Brief on Women's Entrepreneurship. 2017. Available from: http://www.oe cd.org/cfe/smes/Policy-Brief-on-Women-s-Entrepreneurship.pdf. [Accessed: 26 March 2018]

[6] Brush CG, Cooper SY. Female entrepreneurship and economic development: An international perspective. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development: An International

[7] Gupta N, Mirchandani A. Investigating entrepreneurial success factors of women-owned SMEs in UAE. Management Decision. 2018;56(1):219-232. DOI: 10.1108/MD-04-2017-0411

[8] Paige RC, Littrell MA. Craft retailers' criteria for success and associatedbusiness strate-

[9] Masuo D, Fong G, Yanagida J, Cabal C. Factors associated with business and family success: A comparison of single manager and dual manager family business households. Journal of

[10] Minniti M, Naude W. What do we know about the patterns and determinants of female entrepreneurship across countries? The European Journal of Development Research. 2010;

[11] Eyupoğlu SZ, Tülen S. Who is she? The Turkish Cypriot female entrepreneur. African

[12] Jenkins H, Katırcıoğlu S. Investigation of factors affecting job performances of women entrepreneurs in the Turkish republic of northern Cyprus. Kadin/Woman 2000. 2007;8(2):

[13] State Planning Organization, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Labor Force Survey

[14] KOBIGEM (Entrepreneurship Education and Consulting Centre). KKTC ekonomisi bilgi

[15] Kirkwood J. Motivational factors in a push-pull theory of entrepreneurship. Gender in Management: An International Journal. 2009;24(5):346-364. DOI: 10.1108/17542410910968805

gies. Journal of Small Business Management. 2002;40(4):314-331

Family and Economic Issues. 2001;22(1):55-73

22(3):277-293. DOI: org/10.1057/ejdr.2010.17

Journal of Business Management. 2011;5(15):6247-6255

Results 2016. North Cyprus: State Printing Office; 2016

Turkey. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. 2012;24(1/2):29-51

Despite the fact that honesty and reliability in business life are not personality traits that have been indicated in the entrepreneurship literature, in this study, they were the second most vocalised characteristics, together with self-determination, an achievement-oriented mind set and ability to take risks to develop their businesses.

In other results in-line with the literature, the level of risk and difficulties in accessing funding were pointed out as serious constraints on these successful female entrepreneurs. However, the risks taken by these women appear to be beyond those mentioned in much of the entrepreneurship literature. The Cyprus conflict and its negative impact on North Cypriot economy are the main reasons behind many of these risks. Since many of them have a personal tendency to take risks, they appear to have been managing the ambiguity of the markets very well, but this does not change the fact that they have all faced many additional risks in comparison with other trading environments.

Government support is considered to be one of the key elements in empowering the development of entrepreneurship in any nation, especially developing ones [7, 29, 30], and as a developing country with additional individual economic risks, we have identified a need for greater financial support and better credit terms if the authorities wish to encourage the increased involvement of women as entrepreneurs in North Cyprus. Present funding programmes for entrepreneurs provide trainings and consultancy to the successful candidates in the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. These programmes include trainings in team development, marketing, sales, production/service and investment and financial planning. Related associations and institutions can provide more of these training programmes that are not a part of any funding programmes. These trainings will not only help to extend the vision of female entrepreneurs but also give them the opportunity to create networks and obtain mentorship.

This study can be developed by replicating the research with male entrepreneurs to see if there is a difference based on the gender. Moreover, since this research is focused on the descriptive nature of motivational factors, personality traits and challenges, it can be developed by combining both qualitative and quantitative methods.
