Exploring the role of artificial intelligence technology in empowering women-led startups
-
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/kpm.08(2).2024.03
-
Article InfoVolume 8 2024, Issue #2, pp. 28-38
- 103 Views
-
34 Downloads
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
The study aims to investigate how artificial intelligence (AI) influences women-led startups in Saudi Arabia, aiming to understand their unique experiences, challenges, and opportunities within the AI technology landscape. This study used a qualitative method, conducting 16 in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs operating businesses in Saudi Arabia. The analysis was performed using thematic analysis with NVivo 12, uncovering key themes and insights. The findings reveal that cultural norms, societal expectations, limited awareness, and financial constraints are directly associated with women’s involvement in AI-driven businesses. Cultural biases emerged as impediments, underscoring the need for targeted interventions such as awareness campaigns and educational initiatives to dismantle ingrained biases and foster an environment that recognizes and celebrates the contributions of women in the tech and AI sectors. Educational programs, collaborations between academia and industry, and mentorship initiatives were identified as pivotal components to prepare women entrepreneurs to navigate the intricate landscape of AI adoption. Financial inclusion emerged as a critical pillar, advocating for equitable access to funding and resources tailored specifically for women-led AI startups. The study further emphasizes the importance of fostering supportive ecosystems that extend beyond financial aid. Creating networks for mentorship, guidance, and collaboration provides women entrepreneurs with platforms to share experiences and resources, enhancing resilience and the potential for success in the AI landscape.
Acknowledgment
The authors extend their appreciation to the Arab Open University for funding this work through research fund No. AOUKSA-524008.
- Keywords
-
JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)O14, M10, M13, M15
-
References44
-
Tables2
-
Figures0
-
- Table 1. Characteristics of study participants
- Table 2. Theme, categories, and codes
-
- Abdelwahed, N. A. A., Bastian, B. L., & Wood, B. P. (2022). Women, entrepreneurship, and sustainability: the case of Saudi Arabia. Sustainability, 14(18).
- Ahl, H., & Marlow, S. (2012). Exploring the dynamics of gender, feminism and entrepreneurship: advancing debate to escape a dead end? Organization, 19(5), 543-562.
- Ahmed, S. M. (2019). Artificial intelligence in Saudi Arabia: Leveraging entrepreneurship in the Arab markets. In Proceedings of 2019 Amity International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AICAI) (pp. 394-398). Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
- Al-Abdallah, G. M. (2019). A Systematic Review of Women Entrepreneurs Opportunities and Challenges in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 22(6).
- Alateeg, S. S., & Alhammadi, A. D. (2023). Traditional Retailer’s Intention to opt E-commerce for Digital Retail Business in Saudi Arabia. Migration Letters, 20(7), 1307-1326.
- Alateeg, S., & Alhammadi, A. (2024a). The Impact of Organizational Culture on Organizational Innovation with the Mediation Role of Strategic Leadership in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Statistics Applications & Probability, 13(2), 843-858.
- Alateeg, S., & Alhammadi, A. (2024b). The Role of Employee Engagement towards Innovative Work Behavior mediated by Leadership in Small Businesses. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 11(2), 145-156.
- Alateeg, S., Alhammadi, A., Al-Ayed, S. I., & Helmi, M. A. (2024). Factors Influencing on Behavioral Intention to Adopt Artificial Intelligence for Startup Sustainability. Kurdish Studies, 12(1), 2924-2941.
- Al-Baity, H. H. (2023). The Artificial Intelligence Revolution in Digital Finance in Saudi Arabia: A Comprehensive Review and Proposed Framework. Sustainability, 15(18).
- Al-Dajani, H., & Alsahli, M. (2021). Can women entrepreneurs thrive in Saudi Arabia? Entreprendre & Innover [Entrepreneurship and Innovation], 2, 100-109.
- Alessa, A. A., Alotaibie, T. M., Elmoez, Z., & Alhamad, H. E. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurship and consumer behaviour: A case study in Saudi Arabia. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 8(5), 201-210.
- Alhothali, G. T., & Al-Dajani, H. (2022). Emotions and resilience in Saudi women’s digital entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sustainability, 14(14).
- Asch, M., Moore, T., Badia, R., Beck, M., Beckman, P., Bidot, T., Bodin, F., Cappello, F., Choudhary, A., Supinski, B., Deelman, E., Dongarra, J., Fox, G., Fu, H., Girona, S., Gropp, W., Heroux, M., Ishikawa, Y., ..., & Zacharov, I. (2018). Big data and extreme-scale computing: Pathways to convergence-toward a shaping strategy for a future software and data ecosystem for scientific inquiry. The International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, 32(4), 435-479.
- Baek, C. H., Kim, S. Y., Lim, S. U., & Xiong, J. (2023). Quality evaluation model of artificial intelligence service for startups. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 29(4), 913-940.
- Bai, X., & Li, J. (2020). The best configuration of collaborative knowledge innovation management from the perspective of artificial intelligence. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 1-13.
- Bibri, S. E., & Jagatheesaperumal, S. K. (2023). Harnessing the Potential of the Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence for the Internet of City Things: Cost-Effective XReality and Synergistic AIoT Technologies. Smart Cities, 6(5), 2397-2429.
- Cao, L. (2022). AI in finance: challenges, techniques, and opportunities. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 55(3), 1-38.
- Cooper, R. G. (1990). Stage-gate systems: a new tool for managing new products. Business Horizons, 33(3), 44-54.
- Dean, H., Larsen, G., Ford, J., & Akram, M. (2019). Female entrepreneurship and the metanarrative of economic growth: A critical review of underlying assumptions. International Journal of Management Reviews, 21(1), 24-49.
- Desouza, K. C., Dawson, G. S., & Chenok, D. (2020). Designing, developing, and deploying artificial intelligence systems: Lessons from and for the public sector. Business Horizons, 63(2), 205-213.
- Di Vaio, A., Palladino, R., Hassan, R., & Escobar, O. (2020). Artificial intelligence and business models in the sustainable development goals perspective: A systematic literature review. Journal of Business Research, 121, 283-314.
- Drisko, J. W., & Maschi, T. (2016). Content analysis. Pocket Guide to Social Work Re. Oxford University Press.
- Dwivedi, Y. K., Hughes, L., Ismagilova, E., Aarts, G., Coombs, C., Crick, T., Duan, Y., Dwivedi, R., Edwards, J., Eirug, A., Galanos, V., Ilavarasan, P. V., Janssen, M., Jones, P., Kar, A. K., Kizgin, H., Kronemann, B., Lal, B., Lucini, B., Medaglia, R., ..., & Williams, M. D. (2021). Artificial Intelligence (AI): Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy. International Journal of Information Management, 57.
- Dwivedi, Y. K., Ravichandran, K., Williams, M. D., Miller, S., Lal, B., Antony, G. V., & Kartik, M. (2013). IS/IT project failures: a review of the extant literature for deriving a taxonomy of failure factors. In Dwivedi, Y. K., Henriksen, H. Z., Wastell, D., De’, R. (Eds.), Grand Successes and Failures in IT. Public and Private Sectors. TDIT 2013. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (pp. 73-88). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
- Feuerriegel, S., Dolata, M., & Schwabe, G. (2020). Fair AI: Challenges and opportunities. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 62, 379-384.
- Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). (2021). 2021/2022 Global Report.
- Haefner, N., Wincent, J., Parida, V., & Gassmann, O. (2021). Artificial intelligence and innovation management: A review, framework, and research agenda. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 162.
- Harper, D. (2011). Choosing a qualitative research method. In Harper, D., & Thompson, A. R. (Eds.), Qualitative Research Methods in Mental Health and Psychotherapy: A Guide for Students and Practitioners (pp. 83-98). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
- Kalyanasundaram, G. (2018). Why Do Startups Fail? A Case Study Based Empirical Analysis in Bangalore. Asian Journal of Innovation & Policy, 7(1), 79-102.
- Kirchberger, M. A., & Pohl, L. (2016). Technology commercialization: a literature review of success factors and antecedents across different contexts. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 41, 1077-1112.
- Kwon, K. H., & Choi, J. I. (2015). The Analysis of Failure Causes on Technology Venture: A Start-up case of the Government Research Institute (GRI). Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship, 10(4), 27-37.
- Machado, D., Braga, V., Correia, A., Braga, A., & Silva, C. (2023). How female entrepreneurship may boost business innovation and internationalization. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 42(5), 91-110.
- Musiolik, J., Markard, J., Hekkert, M., & Furrer, B. (2020). Creating innovation systems: How resource constellations affect the strategies of system builders. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 153.
- Mustak, M., Salminen, J., Plé, L., & Wirtz, J. (2021). Artificial intelligence in marketing: Topic modeling, scientometric analysis, and research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 124, 389-404.
- Nasar, A., & Akram, M. (2022). COVID-19 crisis and parameters for sustainable entrepreneurship. World Journal of Entrepreneurship Management and Sustainable Development, 18(3), 321-329.
- Nasar, A., Akram, M., Safdar, M. R., & Akbar, M. S. (2022). A qualitative assessment of entrepreneurship amidst COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. Asia Pacific Management Review, 27(3), 182-189.
- Nasar, A., Kamarudin, S., Rizal, A. M., Ngoc, V. T. B., & Shoaib, S. M. (2019). Short- term and long-term entrepreneurial intention comparison between Pakistan and Vietnam. Sustainability, 11(23).
- National Information Society Agency (NISA). (2017). Direction of artificial intelligence development to lead the fourth industrial revolution. IT and Future Strategy, 4(1), 1-31.
- Oppong, G. Y. S., Singh, S., & Kujur, F. (2020). Potential of digital technologies in academic entrepreneurship – a study. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 26(7), 1449-1476.
- Potluri, S., & Phani, B. V. (2020). Women and green entrepreneurship: A literature based study of India. International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 20(3), 409-428.
- TIPA (Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs) (2017). Small business roadmap.
- Toniolo, K., Masiero, E., Massaro, M., & Bagnoli, C. (2020). Sustainable business models and artificial intelligence: Opportunities and challenges. In Matos, F., Vairinhos, V., Salavisa, I., Edvinsson, L., Massaro, M. (Eds.), Knowledge, people, and digital transformation: Approaches for a sustainable future (pp. 103-117). Cham: Springer.
- Wamba, F. S., & Mishra, D. (2017). Big data integration with business processes: a literature review. Business Process Management Journal, 23(3), 477-492.
- Wiklund, J., Baker, T., & Shepherd, D. (2010). The age-effect of financial indicators as buffers against the liability of newness. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(4), 423-437.