An overview on immigrant women’s entrepreneurship in the Italian context

The aim of this paper is to verify whether a successful development model of female immigrant entrepreneurship does exist in Italy. Our study will focus on the potentiality of social media strategies as opportunities for growth and development of new business ideas. The assumptions underpinning the theoretical framework are Hp1, implementing social media strategies is an opportunity for business development, and Hp2, the ability to create partnerships with companies within the same industry has an impact on the implementation of social media strategies. The survey was carried out by submitting a questionnaire to a sample of immigrant women entrepreneurs in the textile and clothing sector based in Italy. The choice fell on this specific economic segment because it represents the third largest sector for the number of female immigrant entrepreneurs (2.271 units) which amounts to 16% of the total number of entrepreneurs operating in the same sector. The percentage of respondents was 35%, with 795 completed questionnaires. The structure of the questionnaire reflects the need to examine the personal features of female entrepreneurs, the organizational aspects and the style of leadership, the task environment in which the enterprise works, and the main possible benefits, or obstacles, they might obtain, or face, by using social media. In addition to the objective of enlarging the literature regarding the management and governance of businesses run by women entrepreneurs, that is quite limited to date, this paper is a contribution to the analysis of a possible development model of women entrepreneurs.