A collaboration to empower women microentrepreneurs
Monash University Malaysia (led by Associate Professor Grace Lee Hooi Yean), in collaboration with Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), developed a tailor-made training curriculum that meets the current needs and challenges of women microentrepreneurs in the bottom 40 per cent of the Malaysian household income (B40) group. AIM is a leading microfinance institution in Malaysia that provides financial facilities, guidance, and ongoing training to women microentrepreneurs among poor and low-income families.
The training, which kicked off on 24 June 2022 at Monash Malaysia, is expected to be carried out throughout the year. It aims to benefit at least 500 women microentrepreneurs who are microfinance clients of AIM.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to embrace technology to move online. As the pandemic negatively disrupts lives and livelihoods, women microentrepreneurs are disproportionately affected.
"We have identified that the lack of knowledge and expertise has hindered these women microentrepreneurs from enjoying the benefits of online business," stated Associate Professor Grace Lee Hooi Yean.
Dr Grace reveals in her research that women microentrepreneurs with a greater growth mindset are more likely to perceive that technology is easy to use and, therefore, have a higher propensity to adopt e-commerce for their business (Lee and Zubir, 2022). In addition, Associate Professor Abu Zafar M. Shahriar of Monash Australia, in his paper with Dean Shepherd (Shahriar and Shepherd, 2019), show that exposure to shocks and vulnerability obstructs poor women's decision to start new businesses through reduced entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and increased fear of business failure (FBF).
Against the above backdrop, the research team introduces a growth mindset and entrepreneurial self-efficacy intervention in the digital marketing training curriculum that meets the current needs and challenges of women microentrepreneurs in the B40 group.
"Besides being adopted by AIM, this tailor-made training program is also adopted by the Laboratory of Entrepreneurship and SMEs Development (ESME Lab) in Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Indonesia. The first training session in Malaysia took place on 24 June 2022, targeting the microloans clients of AIM, while the training in Indonesia was kicked on 18 July 2022 in Surabaya. The training is expected to be carried out throughout this year and aims to benefit at least 1000 women microentrepreneurs among poor and low-income families in Malaysia and Indonesia," Dr Grace shared.
On 12 April 2021, Monash University Malaysia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AIM. The Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) was signed with Institut Teknologi Sepuluh (ITS) was signed on 7 July 2022.The project is sponsored by the Monash University Malaysia-ASEAN Sustainable Development Research Grant Scheme and the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) by the Ministry of Education Malaysia.