First-Generation Women Entrepreneurs in Andhra Pradesh: Motivations and Challenges

First-Generation Women Entrepreneurs (FGWEs) are playing an expanding role in regional economic growth in India, particularly in Andhra Pradesh, where grassroots entrepreneurship and self-help group initiatives have strengthened women’s participation in economic activities. Unlike women from business-oriented families, FGWEs establish enterprises without inherited capital, prior entrepreneurial background, or established commercial networks. As a result, they face distinct structural, institutional, and socio-cultural barriers.

This conceptual paper presents an integrated theoretical framework to analyze the factors shaping the motivations and constraints of FGWEs in Andhra Pradesh. The framework draws on Schumpeter’s Innovation Theory, the Resource-Based View (RBV), Institutional Theory, and Empowerment Theory. It proposes that socio-cultural context, access to finance, government support systems, entrepreneurial competencies, personal motivation, and digital and market exposure jointly influence entrepreneurial confidence and innovation capability. These psychological factors are positioned as mediators between structural conditions and women’s enterprise development outcomes.

The study contends that long-term enterprise sustainability among FGWEs requires more than financial resources and policy interventions. It also depends on empowerment, self-belief, and an orientation toward innovation. By offering a context-specific and theoretically grounded model, this paper contributes to the literature on gender entrepreneurship and provides practical implications for policymakers, MSME bodies, incubators, and self-help group networks working to strengthen women-led enterprises in Andhra Pradesh.