Goodbody Economic Consultants (2002) found that social conditioning and perceived expectations of females in society; incorrect perceptions of the demands of running a business; lack of female role models; low proportion of women pursuing Science, Engineering and Technology programmes; lack of self confidence and difficulties in reconciling work and family life for females were factors contributing to low levels of female enterprising activity. Additionally, Carter & Rosa, 1998; Carter, 2000; Henry & Johnson, 2003; Marlow & Patton, 2005 assert that a funding gap hinders the growth of women-led businesses. This may be attributed to the fact that females typically start a business with personal savings (Bhide,1993) normally accumulated over time, therefore women are disadvantaged when sourcing funds from commercial financial institutions to start or grow their business (Brush, Carter, Gatewood, Greene & Hart, 2004; Carter & Rosa, 1998; McClelland, 2003; Minniti & Bygrave 2003; Stevenson 2003; Storey 1994). Carter & Shaw (2006) argue that, very often, growth orientated women entrepreneurs will resort to “bootstrapping techniques” in the early years of the business, while they consolidate the company and gain more experience. Barringer & Ireland (2006) define bootstrapping as the use of creativity, ingenuity, and any means possible to obtain resources other than borrowing money or raising finance from traditional sources and may include (re) mortgage, private loan, loan from family and friends or using their family home as a location for the business.
Research suggests another key challenge is the lack of adoption and use of ICT as a means of facilitating small firm growth which will have serious implications for the competitiveness and the potential to grow the business. Moreover, the adoption of ICT amongst female entrepreneurs/ mompreneur will also draw on another source of new business creation which remains virtually untapped in Ireland i. e. female entrepreneurs (Henry & Kennedy 2002).
Overall a review of the literature pertaining to the adoption of ICT in female owner/managed firms and the mompreneur business highlighted a vast lacuna of empirical studies. Due to the lack of empirical research studies specific to female entrepreneurs it was deemed important to bridge this information deficit in some form. This lead to the completion of an exploratory study to explore the adoption of ICT in mompreneur businesses. This study will serve to direct much needed attention to this very important function and will bring to the fore topics which are important for inclusion in further more comprehensive quantitative research studies to build evidence based data on this topic. Moreover the findings from this study will serve to identify if common issues emerge in the adoption of ICT with mompreneur and the broader cohort of entrepreneurs.