Self-Finance: Application of the Restricted Pecking Order Theory Among Ugandan Women Entrepreneurs

Women entrepreneurship has gained importance in academia and practice with the realisation, especially in the developing world, that women's participation in economic activity has a great bearing on the betterment of livelihoods at the micro and macro level of the economy. Despite this realisation, female-owned enterprises are grossly underfunded and depend on the meagre savings these women may have access to. Using the restricted pecking order theory, this paper presents the results of an empirical study that examines the effect of the savings behaviour of women entrepreneurs in a developing country on their entrepreneurial activity. The study sample was made up of 650 women who were randomly selected from the central region of Uganda. Through correlation and regression analysis, the results show that a statistically significant inverse relationship exists between savings and entrepreneurial activity. The results have implications for government agencies and non-governmental organisations that work with women entrepreneurs.