Article: K-means clustering for profiling the rural women entrepreneurs in India Journal: International Journal of Business Information Systems (IJBIS) 2014 Vol.17 No.1 pp.33 - 48 Abstract: Women entrepreneur has been recognised during the last decade as an important untapped source of economic growth. Challenges in the path of women entrepreneurs are lack of skills and training, lack of confidence, problems of long term and short term finance, socio-cultural barriers, production problems and inefficient marketing arrangements. There are many women running successfully irrespective of the above said problem. So this research helps to identify the various types of Indian rural women entrepreneurs based the business success attributes. After reviewing the literature of women entrepreneurs, we performed a segmentation analysis of rural women entrepreneurs in India. First, a hierarchical cluster analysis was carried out, and then K-means cluster analysis identified three meaningfully differentiated rural women entrepreneurs' groups. Further, a classification tree analysis was performed to identify the attributes that differentiated the clustered groups. Finally, three clusters of Indian rural women entrepreneurs namely: relationship oriented entrepreneurs, multitalented entrepreneurs and experienced entrepreneurs are identified. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: K-means clustering for profiling the rural women entrepreneurs in India

Authors: M. Hemalatha; S. Senthil Nayaki

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, MAM College of Engineering, Siruganur, Trichy – 621 105, Tamilnadu – India ' Department of Management Studies, MAM College of Engineering, Siruganur, Trichy – 621 105, Tamilnadu – India

Abstract: Women entrepreneur has been recognised during the last decade as an important untapped source of economic growth. Challenges in the path of women entrepreneurs are lack of skills and training, lack of confidence, problems of long term and short term finance, socio-cultural barriers, production problems and inefficient marketing arrangements. There are many women running successfully irrespective of the above said problem. So this research helps to identify the various types of Indian rural women entrepreneurs based the business success attributes. After reviewing the literature of women entrepreneurs, we performed a segmentation analysis of rural women entrepreneurs in India. First, a hierarchical cluster analysis was carried out, and then K-means cluster analysis identified three meaningfully differentiated rural women entrepreneurs' groups. Further, a classification tree analysis was performed to identify the attributes that differentiated the clustered groups. Finally, three clusters of Indian rural women entrepreneurs namely: relationship oriented entrepreneurs, multitalented entrepreneurs and experienced entrepreneurs are identified.

Keywords: India; rural entrepreneurs; women entrepreneurs; entrepreneurial types; business attributes; cluster analysis; classification tree; relationship oriented entrepreneurs; multi-talented entrepreneurs; experienced entrepreneurs; female entrepreneurs; entrepreneurship; K-means clustering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2014.064114

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2014 Vol.17 No.1, pp.33 - 48

Published online: 28 Aug 2014 *

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Title: K-means clustering for profiling the rural women entrepreneurs in India

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