Factors Affecting Women Entrepreneurship in Morocco: The Moderating Role of Public Policies and Institutional Support

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is an opportunity for Moroccan women to gain access to income-generating activities. However, the participation of women in the Moroccan economy is only 26%, which remains very low according to the World Bank. For the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCDE, 2005), women represent a potential for devaluated enterprise creation in both developing and developed countries.

 In Morocco, several legal and tax reforms focusing on the support for entrepreneurship have been adopted as part of national economic restructuring programs. As a result, the implementation of public policies aimed at supporting women entrepreneurs, has certainly favored the development of women entrepreneurship contributing to the creation of jobs and economic benefit. However, the participation of women in economic and entrepreneurial activity faces cultural, social and institutional obstacles, which can hinder evolution of women's entrepreneurship.

Despite the influence of emerging economies on the global economy and the vital role of entrepreneurship in our world, the focus of entrepreneurship research up until this point has almost exclusively been on research sites emanating from North America and Europe (Bruton et al., 2008). Consequently, other areas of the world such as the Middle-East and Africa have not received much attention from academic researchers despite the need to understand entrepreneurship in these emerging economies (Bruton et al., 2008; Kiss et., 2012).

The theme of women's entrepreneurship has been the subject of several studies by both government organizations and researchers. Our goal is to present a state of the art in public policies implemented in Morocco in favor of woman entrepreneurship by presenting the set of public institutions and observatories operating for the promotion of women entrepreneurship.