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The study aims to understand why women-owned microenterprises (WOMEs) in India experience a lower growth rate, where growth can be represented in increments in the venture’s size or scope. There is no conclusive understanding of the factors that affect the sustained growth of WOMEs in India.

What personal, social and economic factors support or hinder the choice, growth and sustainability of women-owned ventures? What role do institutional factors (government, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), self-help groups and microfinance institutions) play toward the sustainability of WOMEs? The answers to these questions were obtained through a qualitative design by interviewing 30 micro women entrepreneurs from Tamil Nadu, a Southern state of India and one of the largest hubs for WOMEs and their responses were content analyzed using NVivo 12 software.

The findings capture and apply the fundamentals of two key theoretical perspectives, resource-based view (RBV) and self-determination theory (SDT), in identifying the links between the individual, social and economic factors and their combined effect on the sustained growth of women-owned micro businesses. The findings add value in identifying the ingrained cultural norms and traditions and several internal and external factors that support or challenge the growth of WOMEs. This study highlights that the interventions by the government need to be strengthened for the growth and sustainability of WOMEs.

The study’s findings provide suggestions to policymakers, banks, funding agencies, financial institutions and NGOs to design applicable policies and schemes toward the sustained growth of WOMEs.

This study contributes toward a better understanding of the trends in the context of WOMEs from an Indian context. This topic has received little attention in the academic literature. Second, the study’s conceptual contribution is an application of SDT and RBV to understand and categorize the enablers and deterrents in the path of growth of WOMEs, which is a novel pursuit.

This paper aims to provide relevant knowledge about entrepreneurship and women’s leadership in the Indian context. More specifically, it unleashes the veiled challenges as well as success stories of select women entrepreneurs of a developing country to bridge the gap between entrepreneurship theory and practice. It aims to provide directions to the policymakers, educationists, society and families in creating a conducive environment that is essential for the success of women entrepreneurs.

With a qualitative case study approach, data were collected from Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state which has a maximum number of women entrepreneurs. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to explore the supportive as well as challenging dimensions of their entrepreneurial journey.

Content analysis of the interview transcripts indicated that successful entrepreneurs are opportunity-driven and they focus on innovation, service, generation of wealth and employment. Support from family, especially from fathers or husbands, is as important as the entrepreneurial drive, skills and abilities of an entrepreneur. Success for them is being happy, thriving work, having a happy family, having a great work-life balance and the satisfaction to have served society apart from being independent (economically/ financially). Among India’s societal and cultural realities, women have to conquer many hurdles (both implicit and explicit) in their way concerning the societal attitudes toward women stepping out of the home boundaries and traditional gender role expectations. The silver line is societal attitudes are changing, especially in urban India. There are enough support and encouragement from the family, which helps these women pursue their passion and eventually become a successful leader.

The success stories of women will bring a wave of positive developmental change in India by fostering respect for women in a male-dominated society and flashing the importance of women’s entrepreneurship.

This paper provides a new examination of women entrepreneurs that significantly further the debate about the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles, especially in entrepreneurship in an emerging economy context like India. Apart from the deterrents, it aims to highlight the enablers and motivations to choose this unconventional profession.

This research aims to study employees' pandemic-induced work–home boundary violations using the work–home boundary model. Boundary theory and social theories provide the theoretical underpinnings for this study. The authors study the role of gender, gender role ideology, and fear of COVID-19 in explaining the relationship between work–home boundary violations, work–family conflict (WFC), and subjective well-being (SWB) among working professionals.

Data were gathered using an online survey on married and working individuals (N = 354) and analyzed using the multi-group analysis technique in structural equation modeling (SEM).

Results show that men faced higher WFC due to job insecurity, while women reported higher WFC due to traditional gender role ideology. Surprisingly, men reported lower subjective well-being due to WFC compared to women, when fear of COVID-19 was low. One promising finding is the potential in using problem-focused coping strategy (PCS) as a boundary-work tactic for both men and women to ensure boundary control (BC) to reduce WFC and improve SWB during the new normal.

This study contributes to boundary theory, social role theory, and social support resource theory, along with practical implications for employees, organizations, and policymakers.

This study dissects the primary role of problem-focused coping as a valid coping mechanism for managing the issues arising from the pandemic-induced unfavorable working conditions.

This paper aims to explore the entrepreneurial journey of select women entrepreneurs from South India to provide qualitative insights into the factors influencing their career choice (to become and continue as an entrepreneur) and to identify the drivers of their growth and well-being.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data from 35 women entrepreneurs in the micro, small and medium enterprises sectors of Tamil Nadu, India. Data were content analyzed using NVivo 12.

Qualitative content analysis identified three broad themes and several sub-themes to suggest a conceptual framework reflecting the possible relationships among them. Women entrepreneurs’ career choice, the growth of their ventures and their well-being were found to be significantly driven by a blend of personal attributes, strong family support and institutional support.

The findings will help the government to provide appropriate institutional support with customized initiatives and incentives to encourage women-owned tiny and small businesses to grow faster. Appropriate personality development programs and skills training will aid their growth.

This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by providing real-life insights from women entrepreneurs from an emerging economy context, especially from Tamil Nadu, which has the highest number of women entrepreneurs in India.

Whereas the extant literature on women's entrepreneurship is almost exclusively focused on developed nations, the effect of many context-specific issues of other countries on ventures of women has been overlooked. The study aims to reveal how political unrest, a common feature of the developing nation, can significantly affect the experiences of women in small businesses of that region.

This feminist research is conducted on Bangladesh, which is one of the most politically unstable countries in the world. The study conducts interviews with women to explore the adverse effect of political unrest on their small firms.

The feminist research reveals some problems of women business-owners concerning political unrest in this highly patriarchal context. It also discloses how political chaos challenges the government initiative in financially supporting women business-owners.

Policymakers of developing nations can be benefitted by taking into account the problems of women business-owners concerning political unrest, specifically the access to debt financing issues while designing policies for women's empowerment.

The article contributes to the women's entrepreneurship scholarship with reference to political unrest, a contextual issue of developing nations. Whereas the existing studies mostly concentrate on holding women individually liable for the limited scale of their business operation, this research potentially challenges the view by drawing upon political unrest as an external factor that negatively affects their ventures. The study further advances the prevailing knowledge by critically unveiling some gender-specific problems of women business-owners regarding political unrest.

Millets are ancient grains, following wheat, that have been a fundamental source of human sustenance. These are nutrient-rich small-seeded grains that have gained prominence and admiration globally due to their super resilience in diverse climates and significant nutritional benefits. As millets are renowned for their nutritional richness, the demand for millet-based products increases. Hence, this paper aims in identifying the growing need for innovative processing techniques that not only preserve their nutritional content but also extend their shelf life.

In traditional times, heat was the only means of cooking and processing of the foods, but the amount of damage they used to cause to the sensorial and nutritional properties was huge. Millets’ sensitivity toward heat poses a challenge, as their composition is susceptible to disruption during various heat treatments and manufacturing processes. To cater to this drawback while ensuring the prolonged shelf life and nutrient preservation, various innovative approaches such as cold plasma, infrared technology and high hydrostatic pressure (HPP) processing are being widely used. These new methodologies aim on inactivating the microorganisms that have been developed within the food, providing the unprocessed, raw and natural form of nutrients in food products.

Among these approaches, nonthermal technology has emerged as a key player that prioritizes brief treatment periods and avoids the use of high temperatures. Nonthermal techniques (cold plasma, infrared radiation, HPP processing, ultra-sonication and pulsed electric field) facilitate the conservation of millet’s nutritional integrity by minimizing the degradation of heat-sensitive nutrients like vitamins and antioxidants. Acknowledging the potential applications and processing efficiency of nonthermal techniques, the food industry has embarked on substantial investments in this technology. The present study provides an in-depth exploration of the array of nonthermal technologies used in the food industry and their effects on the physical and chemical composition of diverse millet varieties.

Nonthermal techniques, compared to conventional thermal methods, are environmentally sound processes that contribute to energy conservation. However, these conveniences are accompanied by challenges, and this review not only elucidates these challenges but also focuses on the future implications of nonthermal techniques.