Technopreneurship : stories from three women entrepreneurs / Almira Nerissa A. Andin

Year : 2014

Number of Pages : 82 leaves

Adviser : Prof. Edison D. Cruz

Executive Summary

This academic paper presents technopreneurship and women empowerment as relevant topics in the study and practice of Technology Management. The paper narrates the stories of three Filipino women entrepreneurs. The paper also highlights these women's strategic contributions to the initiation and growth of their business, their technology decisions in order to stay ahead, and the problems and triumphs they faced as co-founders and leaders of their respective enterprise. Trends from the case study narratives show that a woman entrepreneur's access to and control of technologies could help hone her leadership and entrepreneurial capabilities. Access is described as opportunities in the "enabling environment," while control is depicted as informed decision-making. With access and control, a woman entrepreneur could then manage her enterprise's tangible and intellectual assets, and she is also more confident in handling business risks. The narratives also highlight the importance of women founders/leaders in diffusing innovations to other women. In many ways, women adopt innovations to make their "economic presence" more prominent in the household, their enterprise, and their communities. All these findings suggest that "gender-responsive" technopreneurship is a plausible strategy in Technology Management. This academic paper has eight major parts. Key terminologies are presented in Part 3. The context of the study is explained in Part 4. A review of related literature on technopreneurship and women empowerment is presented in Part 5. Parts 6 and 7 discuss the research objectives and methodology, and complement the previous segments by providing a set of research parameters for the case study. Part 8 presents the three case studies in their narrative and summarized tabular formats. The paper's conclusion is presented in Part 9. Finally, Part 10 offers recommends for institutional support to women technopreneurs.