Women’s Entrepreneurship in Matriarchal and Patriarchal Societies in Indonesia: The Role of Isomorphism, Institutions and Legitimacy

The purpose of this thesis is to assess the contribution of matriarchy and patriarchy to the experience of female entrepreneurs. Its value is in expanding and developing a more nuanced understanding of how gender shapes entrepreneurial behaviours. It is widely acknowledged that gender is socially constructed (Ahl, 2004). However, narratives of entrepreneurship built upon masculine stereotypes persist (Smith, 2015), derived partly from a preponderance of entrepreneurship studies being conducted in patriarchal societies. We seldom consider the experience of female entrepreneurs in matriarchal societies, even though they exist worldwide. Likewise, there is a lack of work in comparing/ contrasting women's entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial processes in the matriarchal and patriarchal society. There is, therefore, a need for rebalancing in entrepreneurship research, with more work needed in alternate contexts and considering the influence of matriarchal institutional arrangements on entrepreneurship, especially women's entrepreneurship. We need to better capture the ways diverse societies with different gender constructions foster different entrepreneurship experiences. Building on the institutional view, this thesis examines, compares and contrasts how matriarchal institutions in Minangkabau society and patriarchal institutional arrangements in Javanese society interact with the everyday experiences of female entrepreneurs.

It draws upon data collected through semi-structured interviews with fifteen Minangkabau female entrepreneurs (matriarchal society), twenty-two Javanese female entrepreneurs (patriarchal society), tribal leaders in both societies and officials from the Indonesian Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises. Data collection occurred in West Sumatera, the home of the Minangkabau people, and Yogyakarta, a Javanese province. The interviews were analysed using GIOIA methodology (Gioia et al., 2013) and supplemented with field observations and analysis of secondary materials, e.g., media reports.

These matriarchal and patriarchal institutional arrangements were found to shape gender roles, creating varied opportunities and challenges for women entrepreneurs. The structural pressure of matriarchy leads to career convergence and elucidates the prevalence of female entrepreneurs in Minangkabau. This study also finds that legitimacy processes and entrepreneurial identity construction processes for female entrepreneurs in a matriarchal society differ from those in a patriarchal society. This signifies the different entrepreneurial experiences of women entrepreneurs in these societies.

This study contributes to women's entrepreneurship literature, and wider entrepreneurship scholarship, especially the recent contextual turn, by generating novel insights into institutional processes and women's entrepreneurship, and revealing and conceptualising how these play out differently amidst gendered social structures of matriarchy and patriarchy. Empirically, this study contributes to our understanding of relationships between women's entrepreneurship and context in the hitherto underexplored setting of matriarchal societies and amongst the Minangkabau of Indonesia. It further contributes to research on women's entrepreneurship in emerging economy settings, which remain underrepresented in the field, showcasing the value and additional nuance work in such contexts can bring to existing debates and theorising.