Why Hurry? The Slow Process of High Growth in Women-Owned Businesses in a Resource-Scarce Context

Abstract

This article critically uncovers how embeddedness within a resource-scarce context influences high-growth women’s entrepreneurship. Research suggests that though highly embedded women entrepreneurs can easily access resources and attain legitimacy, resulting in high-growth businesses, they can also become locked into existing systems that constrain their growth development paths. Using 16 qualitative cases developed in Cameroon, we unpack and resolve this paradox by analyzing how entrepreneurial path creation by women entrepreneurs enables the realization of growth aspirations. Implications for initiatives to support high-growth women’s entrepreneurship in resource-scarce contexts are critically examined.