The entrepreneurship of Minangkabau women

Women retailers have long dominated the business scene in in its core culture area of West Sumatra. The Minangkabau culture has equipped them with basic entrepreneurial and business skills that fostered that dominance. This study takes a closer look at the women’s entrepreneurial traits through an analysis of the intrinsic influence of their own Minangkabau culture and the possible influence of extrinsic factors on their motivation. Primary datawere obtained from the focus interviews of 91 Minangkabau business women of Tabek Panjang, Padang Tarok, Koto Tinggi and Simarasok in the Baso province of West Sumatra. The findings revealed that most Minangkabau business women engaged in retailing business to obtain additional income for they already had a main non-business source of income. Evidently, they had acquired their business skill from their family . They were also helped by the availability of basic infrastructural facilities such as road transportation. However, they were still confronted with two major challenges: one was the lack of physical amenities such as a physical building with systematic conveniences and adequate shelter from the elements so that they could conduct their transactions in a comfortable environment; the other was access to capital and financial assistance to facilitate their business expansion.