Immigrant women’s entrepreneurship: is there a development model in Italy?

The aim of this paper is to verify if there is a typical enterprise model for the development of immigrant female entrepreneurship in Italy. Based on the literature on the subject, however, it is useful to ask the following research question: “can membership in a national and international network facilitate the development of immigrant female entrepreneurship operating in Italy”? 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. 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.