Microsoft Word - 1202_Jonathan Gano-an Available online at: https://journals.researchsynergypress.com/index.php/ijmesh International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH) ISSN 2580-0981 (online) Volume 5 Number 2 (2022): 108-126 Corresponding author SettingsJonathan Gano-an, ganoan.jonathan@gmail.com DOI: https://doi.org/10.31098/ijmesh.v5i2.1202 Research Synergy Foundation Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an1, Gloria P Gempes2 1PhD Candidate, University of Mindanao, Philippines 2University of Mindanao, Philippines Abstract The presence of women entrepreneurs in the digital marketplace revolutionizes the way we construct our understanding of entrepreneurship way back. Perhaps, this argument could lead to a better impression that entrepreneurship was once a male-dominated profession. This study was designed to generate a causal model on entrepreneurial intention among women entrepreneurs in the context of entrepreneurship, opportunity, alertness, and motivation. A mixed methods design, particularly an explanatory sequential approach, was utilized, and a total of 423 women digital entrepreneurs in the Davao Region participated in this research. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the hypothesized causal model. Findings indicated that entrepreneurial motivation significantly influences alertness, opportunity, and intention; alertness influences opportunity, but entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial opportunity have no significant influence on entrepreneurial intention. Generally, the hypothesized regression model described 67% of the aggregate variance in entrepreneurial intentions, which was statistically significant. The quantitative results were validated by the informants in the qualitative phase. As to the generated model, the informants concurred with the focal role of entrepreneurial motivation in women's entrepreneurial intentions. The emerging themes: personal will, entrepreneurial screening and seizing, social media presence, and stakeholder support substantiated the results in the model. This leads to connecting- merging-confirmation as the natural integration. Keywords: Entrepreneurial Intention; Entrepreneurial alertness; Entrepreneurial Opportunity; Entrepreneurial Motivation; Gender Empowerment. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC license. INTRODUCTION Entrepreneurship is among the notable compelling features of socioeconomic progress (Coulibaly, Erbao, & Mekongcho, 2018), and scholars are convinced that intention plays an important role in deciding what entrepreneurial venture to initiate (Barba-Sánchez & Atienza- Sahuquillo, 2018). However, entrepreneurship has long been considered a male-dominated career (Díaz-García & Jiménez-Moreno, 2010; Marlow & McAdam, 2013; Sweida & Reichard, 2013) and individual factors such as risk aversion, aversion to anxiety, and fear of failure are the usual obstacles experienced by potential entrepreneurs (Welsh, Kim, Memili & Kaciak, 2014; Welsh, Memili, Kaciak & Al Sadoon, 2014; Welsh, Memili, Kaciak and Ochi, 2014; Yordanova & Alexandrova-Boshnakova, 2011). In fact, fear of failure was the most quoted reason for aspiring entrepreneurs to venture into new start-ups (Sandhu, Sidique, & Riaz, 2011). So, the persistent International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes │ 109 ISSN 2580-0981 (online) gender bias compounded by some personal factors impaired the propensity of women toward launching an entrepreneurial activity. The digitalization of products and services is a good venue for women entrepreneurs to exploit opportunities not just to uplift their quality of life but gain recognition, status, and economic independence, especially in traditional societies. More on that, the inclusion of women in almost every aspect of the economy driven by sustainable development goal number 5 (gender equality and women empowerment has encouraged women to engage in entrepreneurial activity. Thus, in this study, there are two important points that the researchers wished to convey: First, in the present entrepreneurial ecosystem, the rise of the number of women entrepreneurs who turned from traditional business models into digital entrepreneurship has been exponentially significant. This might be due to the reason that some social networking sites, Facebook, for instance, are offering free usage among their users. This kind of shift is inherent in the ambitions of industry 4.0 (internet of things) or digitalization of a business process; however, if we turn our attention to scholarly discussions, there appears to be a dearth of studies discussing the real intentions, as well as implications of this shift and limited effort, has been done when it comes to an understanding the intentions and the future directions of women entrepreneurs even if the current information and communications technology (ICT) landscape in the Philippines suggested an upward trend. For instance, different efforts from various government agencies contribute to the growth of ICT in the country, most specifically the Tech 4 Ed and Rural Impact Outsourcing Training of the Department of Information and Communications Technology. More on that, the Technical Skills Development Authority through its educational institutes, has been generous in educating women and enhancing skills with the aim of promoting self-employment. Indeed, the ICT initiatives for women are slowly gaining attention, and the Department of Information and Communications Technology has taken the lead in ensuring to inspire women to excel in the online environment. Second, the common obstacles to enterprise development, particularly for women, includes: a lack of management experience, knowledge about business development, lack of networking skills, insufficient entrepreneurial training, the issue with child care, and devotion to their families (Roomi, Harrison, & Beaumont-Kerridge, 2009). This is further emphasized by Dahalan, Jaafar, and Rosdi (2013), that male entrepreneurs are more motivated in recognizing entrepreneurial opportunities, and interestingly, Maes, Leroy, and Sels, (2014) found that, in comparison to women, males viewed an entrepreneurial career higher as a way to have a demanding work. Until now, there seems to be scarce knowledge on what really predicts the entrepreneurial intentions of women (Sarwar, Ahsan, & Rafiq, 2021). Hence, this study was initiated to highlight the implications for women entrepreneurs across the digital spectrum. Furthermore, this paper aimed to come up with a model for entrepreneurial intentions among women entrepreneurs in Region XI, Philippines taking into account entrepreneurial opportunity, entrepreneurial alertness, and entrepreneurial motivation using a mixed methods approach, explanatory sequential in particular. LITERATURE REVIEW The Theory of Planned Behavior of Ajzen (1991) posited that intention to perform a particular behavior (entrepreneurial activity) may be accurately predicted. Accordingly, the TPB model has two foundations: desirability and feasibility. The Theory of Planned Behavior further International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes 110 │ ISSN 2580-0981 (online) posits that if there is a positive attitude towards the behavior, the intention may increase. The use of TPB in this research was anchored on the following: first, entrepreneurial intention is a considered a cognitive state and the entrepreneurial decision making is a form of a behavior which is an close antecedent of TPB and intention based models are gaining popularity in entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurial Alertness and Entrepreneurial Intention Entrepreneurial alertness forms part in the development of the entrepreneurial intentions of the prospective entrepreneurs and according to Samo and Hashim (2016), if a person is alert, he may grow intentions to invest on opportunities since entrepreneurial alertness influences the attention phase during the personal decision-making process by influencing attitude, normative beliefs, and perceived behavioral control. Entrepreneurial alertness greatly impacts entrepreneurial intentions (Gaglio & Katz, 2001; Neneh, 2019). This is consistent with the claims made by Van Gelderen, Brand, van Praag, Bodewes, Poutsma, and Van Gils (2008) and Martin, McNally, and Kay (2013) that entrepreneurial awareness has a major influence on personal entrepreneurial intention. Researchers have found consistent evidence that entrepreneurial alertness based on empirical evidence, indicates that an individual's entrepreneurial alertness increases intention and inspires them to start their own enterprise. In fact, Solesvik, Westhead, Matlay, and Parsyak (2013) confirmed that individuals with high levels of entrepreneurial alertness indicated a higher level of entrepreneurial intention H1. Entrepreneurial alertness positively affects entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial Motivation and Entrepreneurial Intention Motivation, according to self-determination theory of Ryan and Deci (2000), is a core of physiological, mental, and social control including energy and intention stimulation. This suggests that motives are essential in understanding individual intentions. Entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial intention were found to have a substantial link (Solesvik, 2013; Achchuthan & Nimalathasan, 2013). Carsrud and Brännback (2011), for example, contend that there is a connection between business intentions and entrepreneurial motivation. They suggested that, because intentions do not always translate into an activity, motivation could ignite a dormant intention into an active action (Carsrud & Brännback, 2011). Entrepreneurial intention and drive to establish and build an enterprise are equally important, according to the researchers (Renko, Kroeck, & Bullough, 2012; Edelman, Brush, Manolova & Greene, 2010; Manolova, Brush, & Edelman, 2008). The more people who believe they can accomplish these goals by establishing or expanding a business, the more motivated they would be to launch or have expansion plans for the enterprise and I t appears that there is a connection between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial motivation, which is consistent with the hypothesis put out by Carsrud and Brännback (2011). This indicates that after deciding to launch a business, a person's entrepreneurial passion may serve as the fuel that advances the entrepreneurial process. So, entrepreneurial motivation relates entrepreneurial intention (Fayolle, Lián& Moriano, 2014; Carsrud & Brännback, 2011). This further International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes │ 111 ISSN 2580-0981 (online) denotes that entrepreneurial motivation has a role to play especially in predicting individual intentions especially in engaging in an entrepreneurial activity, thus, the researchers proposed that: H2. Entrepreneurial motivation positively affects entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurial Opportunity and Entrepreneurial Intention The current entrepreneurial prospects, mostly in technological and social contexts, can be leveraged by potential entrepreneurs. The likelihood of starting a business and the capacity to identify entrepreneurial skills should be impacted by entrepreneurial opportunities (Matricano, 2016). The fundamental claim is that there is a clear correlation between entrepreneurial opportunity and intentions. Farsi, Arabiun, and Moradi (2012) concluded that the ability to recognize opportunities greatly improves subjective norms that influence entrepreneurial intentions. According to Fairlie and Fossen (2018), the role of entrepreneurial opportunity in reducing poverty encourages entrepreneurial intention and Koyviriyakul (2016) concluded that perceived opportunity is one of the key factors which contributed towards entrepreneurial intention. According to Do Paço, Ferreira, Raposo, Rodrigues, and Dinis (2015); Elfving, Brännback, and Carsrud (2009); Krueger (2017); Joensuu-Salo, Varamäki, and Viljamaa (2015); Lián and Fayolle (2015) and Rauch and Hulsink (2015) an individual's perception of opportunity is a process that was based on entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, Smallbone and Welter's (2009) assertion that a person's interest in developing their abilities and capabilities and creating entrepreneurial opportunities to build an enterprise is true (Scarborough, 2011; Kusumawijaya, 2018). These studies imply that since entrepreneurial opportunities already existed and the ability to recognize business opportunities rests on the individual skill, then it suggests entrepreneurial opportunities inspires the entrepreneur’s intention to engage in a business activity. Thus, the research proposed that: H3. Entrepreneurial opportunity positively affects the entrepreneurial intention Entrepreneurial Motivation and Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognizing and taking advantage of business possibilities are both examples of entrepreneurial motivation according to Locke and Baum (2007) and entrepreneurial motivation reflects a desire for self-starting, the desire to create something new, based on internal impetus rather external demands (Frese & Gielnik, 2014). Shane, Lock and Collins (2003), suggest that entrepreneurial motivation consists of a combination of personality, affect and task specific aspects that impact opportunity recognition and exploitation processes. These scholars argue that the personal motivations of an individual leads them to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities available in their environment. Thus, the researchers proposed that: H4. Entrepreneurial motivation positively affects entrepreneurial opportunity. International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes 112 │ ISSN 2580-0981 (online) Entrepreneurial Motivation and Entrepreneurial Alertness Without entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurial alertness may be anticipated to result into an entrepreneurial action, irrespective of how obviously one may have discovered an opportunity according to Kirzner (1985), who characterized alertness as a driven inclination of a person to build a vision of the future (McMullen & Shepherd, 2006). More specifically, as per Sirén, Parida, Patel, and Wincent (2019), motivation is linked to alertness and helps people realize opportunities to start their own businesses. Hou (2008) also came to the same conclusion, concluding that psychological ownership (an indicator of motivation) affects entrepreneurial alertness and, as a result, influences the likelihood of taking entrepreneurial action. Based on these studies, we can now infer that when an entrepreneur is motivated, there is a likelihood that his entrepreneurial alertness will be triggered. Thus, the researchers hypothesize that: H5. Entrepreneurial motivation positively affects entrepreneurial alertness. Entrepreneurial Alertness and Entrepreneurial Opportunity Entrepreneurial awareness was first defined by Kirzner's idea (1979) as "the capacity to identify without searching opportunities that have heretofore been neglected" (Kirzner, 1979). An entrepreneurial attitude that includes alertness directs the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities (Kirzner, 1999). Entrepreneurial awareness necessitates a better behavioral response, yet this is not a systematic process. With this, alertness is seen as a mental state that is constantly open to seeing opportunities (Short, Ketchen, Shook, & Ireland, 2010; Valliere, 2013). Furthermore, Hou (2008) noted that people with great entrepreneurial alertness are much more likely to see opportunities, which is a crucial step in creating personal activities to turn into an entrepreneur by launching a new business. Entrepreneurial alertness was recognized as contributing variable for opportunity recognition as proven by Hulbert, Gilmore, and Carson (2013).Drawing from these scholarly evidence, the researcher hypothesized that: H6. Entrepreneurial alertness affects entrepreneurial opportunity RESEARCH METHOD This study utilized a non-experimental mixed methods approach, explanatory sequential design in particular. Burke Johnson, Onwueegbuzie, and Turner (2007) defined mixed methods research as the type of study in which an individual or group of individuals combines the components of qualitative and quantitative research techniques for the general purposes of wide and in-depth of knowledge and corroboration. Creswell and Plano-Clark (2011) further said that this technique makes it possible to construct a better level of understanding than if a singular approach were used to particular research. Explanatory sequential design takes place in two unique research phases: the first involves gathering and analyzing quantitative data to enhance the findings in the first phase, and the second it involves designing the qualitative phase based on the quantitative conclusions (Creswell & Plano- Clark, 2018; Schoonenboom & Johnson, 2017; Shorten & Smith, 2017; Wisdom & Creswell, 2013). In this approach, researchers first embarked on understanding the quantitative results and the qualitative data substantiates it (Wisdom & Creswell, 2013). The qualitative design provides a more International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes │ 113 ISSN 2580-0981 (online) thorough explanation of some quantitative outcomes that include surprising findings (Terrell, 2012). This study was conducted in Region XI (7.3042° N, 126.0893° E) Philippines. For the quantitative phase, a total of 450 questionnaires were distributed and 423 were returned and processed. The distribution and retrieval of the questionnaire took place last February to April 2022. Wolf, Harrington, Clark, and Miller (2013) provided that a sample size between 30-460 is enough to produce good results and patterns. For the qualitative phase, a total of 17 participated and the interviews were done on May 2022. For the interview based researches, 6-12 persons may be sufficient (Adler & Adler, 2012). The quantitative part of this study utilized 4 adapted questionnaires from various authors through their published works. These questionnaires were modified and contextualized.. The questionnaire for entrepreneurial alertness was be adapted from the study of Tang, Kacmar, and Busenitz (2012); entrepreneurial motivation was adapted from the study of Vijaya and Kamalanabhan (1998);entrepreneurial opportunity was adapted from the study of Park, Sung, and Im (2017) and; entrepreneurial intention was adapted from Dzomonda, Fatoki, and Oni (2015). These questionnaires have gone through an expert validation and reliability test. The average expert validation rating for the questionnaires is 4.52 and the Cronbach alpha is .955. The respondents of this study were the women entrepreneurs who are using the internet to sell or make business transactions. Women entrepreneurs who were included in this study have meet the following minimum criteria: she must have been engage in business for at least 3 years, utilized social media platforms either Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to sell items or conduct business, and must be at least 18 years old. In this study, they were referred to as ‘digital entrepreneurs’. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The associations among the latent variables (entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurial opportunity, entrepreneurial alertness, and entrepreneurial motivation) and its indicators were tested in a four factor measurement model by means of a confirmatory factor analysis approach. The findings of the measurement model were evaluated and interpreted using the criteria of Bayram (2013) which are: GFI, Normed Fit Index, Tucker-Lewis Index, Comparative Fit Index, CMIN/DF , p-value, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation, and Pclose. The figure below is considered to be the best measurement model considering theoretical and statistical soundness. As shown in Table 1, the Chi Square Likelihood ratio(1.974) appears to be significant, RMSEA index of 0.49 is less than the significance level indicating a reasonable fit. Similarly, the criteria such as NFI (.988), TLI (.978), CFI (.991), GFI (.961), pvalue (.153) and Pclose (.671) are within the acceptable range which suggests a very good fit. This model was also chosen to be the best model because the researchers are driven by the theoretical basis that the extracted factors are already the identified factors for entrepreneurial intention of women digital entrepreneurs. International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes 114 │ ISSN 2580-0981 (online) Figure 1. Standardized Path Coefficients in Measurement Model Table 1. Model Fit Indices INDEX CRITERION VALUES CMIN/DF 00,05 ,153 NFI >0,95 ,988 TLI >0,95 ,978 CFI >0,95 ,991 GFI >0,95 ,961 RMSEA <0.08 0,49 Pclose >0.05 ,671 Legend: CMIN/DF - Chi-Square/Degrees of Freedom NFI - Normed Fit Index TLI - Tucker-Lewis Index CFI - Comparative Fit Index GFI - Goodness of Fit Index RMSEA - Root Means Square of Error Approximation Pclose - P of Close Fit Structural Regression Model As shown in the hypothesized model fit in Figure 6, out of the 6 paths, 4 paths showed significant links and the other two are insignificant paths. First, entrepreneurial motivation directly International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes │ 115 ISSN 2580-0981 (online) affects entrepreneurial intentions as shown by a regression estimate of .62. The result implies that when the women entrepreneurs are motivated to do business, it signifies their intention of becoming an entrepreneur. The second path, entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial alertness also showed significant influence (.78). This means that entrepreneurial motivation affects the entrepreneurial alertness of the women entrepreneur. Third, a significant influence of entrepreneurial alertness to entrepreneurial opportunity of the women entrepreneurs(.29). This implies that when women are entrepreneurially alert, they eventually saw great opportunity in doing business online. ( indicates significant paths; ----> indicates non-significant paths) Figure 2. Standardized Values of the Hypothesized Model Fit However, there are two insignificant paths in this model as shown by a regression estimate of 0.01 of entrepreneurial alertness to the intention. This implies that women may be alert to business ideas yet their entrepreneurial intention may not necessarily be affected. Meaning, alertness to business ideas may not last for long or may not fully develop into a profitable venture. The second insignificant path is the influence of entrepreneurial opportunity to entrepreneurial intention (0.09). The result implies that while there may be lucrative opportunities in making money online (Facebook, twitter, Instagram), the entrepreneurial intentions of women to do business permanently may not necessarily become possible. Others might just find good opportunities in an instant but may not last longer because they may lose interest in it. International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes 116 │ ISSN 2580-0981 (online) The significant influence of entrepreneurial motivation towards entrepreneurial alertness, opportunities and intention is in parallel with the work of Solesvik (2013) who showed that entrepreneurial motivation is directly associated entrepreneurial intention; Kirzner’s (1985) work are in parallel with the results as well as with Hou (2008) concluding that motivation affect entrepreneurial alertness. On top of that, Sirén, Parida, Patel, and Wincent (2019) provided that alertness is associated with human motivation Next, entrepreneurial alertness has significant path towards opportunity but insignificant towards intentions, meaning, EA has indirect effect in EI and it can only affect EI in combination with EO. This result has been clearly supported by the fact that irrespective as to how "exactly" one may have "recognized" an opportunity, entrepreneurial alertness could not be expected to result in entrepreneurial action without passion (McMullen & Shepherd, 2006). Furthermore, entrepreneurial alertness is significant towards opportunity, yet insignificant towards intentions. While Neneh (2019) and Van Gelderen, Brand, van Praag, Bodewes, Poutsma, and Van Gils (2008) supported the EA to EI path, but the insignificant path towards entrepreneurial intention was explained by Samo and Hashim (2016) indicating that since entrepreneurial alertness may only influence the attention stage during personal decision-making process, so if the person is alert, he may build the intentions for seizing the entrepreneurial opportunities. Lastly, the insignificant association of opportunities towards intentions contradicts the study of Matricano (2016) and Farsi, Arabiun, and Moradi (2012) which concluded that entrepreneurial opportunities are anticipated to affect the intention to engage in an entrepreneurial activity. Characterization of the Constructs by the Women The participation of women in revolutionizing the entrepreneurial landscape within the digital spectrum in the Philippines did not just empower them economically, rather it boosted their social and moral spirit especially when most people find entrepreneurship as a male-dominated career. To substantiate the quantitative results of this study, several women entrepreneurs were asked on how they would characterize the 4 constructs considered in this paper. First, the women were asked about how do they define entrepreneurial motivation and two themes that emerged: Family and Peer Support and Aspirations for Financial Security. First, women ventured into online selling as they are motivated to pursue this profession by their family and friends. For instance, Niev commented: I feel motivated to put up a business because of my kids. Another is when I get support from my family, friends, and customers from social media Marie Also added: What motivates the businessman to continue is a support system, or a need to keep doing business for the family Another theme that emerged is all about aspirations for financial security, women are compelled to venture into online selling because this may allow them to be economically stable, especially during tough times. In fact, Princess pointed out that: International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes │ 117 ISSN 2580-0981 (online) Entrepreneurial motivation is the bills I need to pay. My financial needs become my motivation to be consistent in posting in social media groups so that a lot of people will see the items for sale This is a clear manifestation that by venturing into online selling, the financial aspirations (more wealth, stability, security) of women digital entrepreneurs can possibly be achieved. For the construct, entrepreneurial alertness, there are two themes that transpired: Awareness and Market Inquiry. Women entrepreneurs defined alertness as “being aware of the popular culture” as well as being aware of the risks that is why an entrepreneur has to take precautions whether in investing in new businesses or catering new market segment. As a matter of fact, Marie explained: I understand it as precautions or warning that one should see to be able to make assessments and plans on your business to avoid failure Mae further commented: These are the things that you must evaluate whether profitable for your business or not However, there are women entrepreneurs who define it within the concept of awareness but point out to a more substantiated and practical insights leading to the second theme, market inquiry. Women thought of entrepreneurial alertness as the ability to being literally become “alert” to what the customer wants/need through a simple survey or research. Princess gave an example: I studied first who will be the target market that can give me more profit. I also have to consider that posting in social media will greatly help For the third construct, there were two themes that were developed: market trends and customer preferences. Women digital entrepreneurs rationalized that entrepreneurial opportunity arose from what are the 'trendy' or popular in the market. Just like in physical stores, once you ventured into online selling you must survive and exploit every entrepreneurial opportunity available. Ann clearly stated that: Sell items that are in demand in the market. In that way, you can earn for sure Niev also pointed out: Discover business or items/products that are trendy or popular in the market Consistent with the previous theme, women entrepreneurs emphasized that entrepreneurial opportunities can be fully exploited by understanding the needs and preferences of your target market. Theoretically, this is a parallel concept to market segmentation. As Cherry recounted: International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes 118 │ ISSN 2580-0981 (online) Listening to my customers’ needs or requests give me the idea on what to sell next time and how many customers are likely to buy it Princess also confirmed: Being prompt/ alert to respond to customers is also an opportunity to close deals For the last construct, entrepreneurial intention. A lone theme emerged: personal will. According to the accounts of the women entrepreneurs, intention is a personal will to plan and organize a profitable enterprise. Along with other factors, this is more on the personal willpower to initiate an action (entrepreneurial activity). Arlene confirmed this by saying: I understand it as a plan to create a new business. Like me, I plan to sell through social media because it is the trend The characterization of women digital entrepreneurs on the four constructs considered in this study is not just critical for the development of new knowledge in the entrepreneurship literature, it is also vital on advancing our understanding on the role of women in revolutionizing digital entrepreneurship and exploiting lucrative opportunities in the digital landscape in developing states such as the Philippines. Insights about the Hypothesized Regression Model The results for each path was explained, and the entrepreneurs were asked whether they agree with the results. For the purpose of clarifying their insights, a common reason was presented in the form of theme to highlight why they have agreed to the results of the quantitative analysis. First, the women digital entrepreneurs were asked about their views about the significant influence of entrepreneurial motivation to alertness, opportunity, and intentions. The women agreed on these relationships, and the most common reasons that emerged is personal desire. According to them, entrepreneurial motivation is a form of personal desire to where it can significantly impact alertness, opportunity, and intentions. As reiterated by Princess: EM is the self-motivation and/or inspiration of the person doing business Maria also extrapolated: I would agree that EM has significant relationship with EA because as what I have said earlier if u have that goal, or if u have that drive in starting up a new business, you have Upon looking into their statements, women entrepreneurs put great emphasis on the reason that EM influences EA, EA, and EI because it is a personal desire that emanates from the entrepreneurs themselves. Second, the significant path of between Entrepreneurial alertness towards entrepreneurial opportunity and the insignificant towards entrepreneurial intentions have been explained by the International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes │ 119 ISSN 2580-0981 (online) women entrepreneurs. They have pointed out that the more an individual is aware (EA) about the environment and the customer preferences, the more opportunities that come along their entrepreneurial journey. With these, when viable entrepreneurial ideas are screened and evaluated, it then provides an chance for the entrepreneurs to seize the entrepreneurial opportunity. Taking from her own personal experience, Maricar confidently noted: I agree that EA only affects EI if combined with EO. Because EO helps to make a plan (EI) by giving ideas on how to grow your business or change your products into ones that will fit into the market. Those ideas will then be evaluated (EA), to see if doing those ideas are necessary to do in order to expand the business The insignificant path of EA towards entrepreneurial intention was carefully explained by Mae saying: I believe that EA has no relationship with EI because EI means the plans you have for the future which you got from the ideas provided by EO The significant path of entrepreneurial opportunity towards entrepreneurial intentions has been unanimously agreed by the women entrepreneurs. They claimed that the entrepreneurial opportunities provided by or present in the social media (be it a necessity or created wants) highly ignite the entrepreneurial intentions of women. This then creates an opportunity for them to establish their social media account that is intended for selling. Lastly, entrepreneurial motivation had a strong direct effect on entrepreneurial intention, meaning, EM increases the intention of women to become an entrepreneur. The common denominator that the women entrepreneurs pointed out here is the stakeholder’s support. This support comes from their respective family, friends, and acquaintances online. Their social media presence has allowed them to connect with various contacts which helped them, in one way or the other to get motivated to truly pursue their entrepreneurial intentions in the long run. In fact, Arjen confirmed: I agree that EM has a greater effect to EI than EO has to EI. Even if a lot of opportunities are presented to you, if you don’t feel inspired to take action, then you will not realize the things that must be done. If you are not motivated, you will not be able to perform the EA, too Insights on the Generated Model Based on the generated model, women entrepreneurs were asked about their final impressions of the generated model. There is only one common insight that the women entrepreneurs have provided: motivation drives the entrepreneur to materialize their entrepreneurial intentions. This corroborates with the statistical results showing a direct significant influence of entrepreneurial motivation to intentions. The women digital entrepreneurs qualified that for an entrepreneur to fully materialized their intentions to sell online, one must have International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes 120 │ ISSN 2580-0981 (online) a strong drive to do so and such drive must be the ‘entrepreneurial motivation’. In fact, Maria underscored: EM is necessary because it is the aspect where your-self as the entrepreneur, the community, the work, and the market belong Kay further stressed that entrepreneurial motivation harmonizes all other three elements, namely EA, EO, and EI: EM is needed to perform the other three. If there is no market/customers, which is in EM, then there you cannot conduct a survey. You cannot discover, and you cannot go on with the plan, without EM. These are necessary for a successful business Princess also gave her honest remark and said: Motivation is really the main factor. You have to be motivated with yourself and with your products, as well. Business is not easy, but if you are self-motivated, opportunities and intentions will just come around Table 2 shows the results of the two phases in this study. Based on the findings of both quantitative and qualitative phases, the status of entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurial alertness, and entrepreneurial opportunity were described as high which signifies that those constructs were oftentimes manifested by the women digital entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial intention is sometimes manifested, yet all these factors are of high importance to the women entrepreneurs. Secondly, the significant influence between EM to EA (.78); EM to EI (.62); EM to EO (.64); EA and EO(.29) and the insignificant paths: EA to EI (.01) EO to EI (.09) have been confirmed by the women entrepreneurs by validating in the qualitative portion of the study. Table 2. Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis Research Area Quantitative Phase Qualitative Phase Nature of Integration 1. Status of Entrepreneurial motivation, Entrepreneurial Alertness, Entrepreneurial Opportunity, and 1.1 Status of Entrepreneurial Intentions -Means of each construct ranges from 3.60 to 3.72 or high level which indicate that respondents oftentimes manifested these items. -Mean is 3.33 or moderate level, sometimes manifested. -Informants/Participants considered all four variables as “very important” -Connecting, Merging (Confirmation) International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes │ 121 ISSN 2580-0981 (online) Research Area Quantitative Phase Qualitative Phase Nature of Integration 2. Significant Influence between variables Significant Paths: EM---->EA (.78) EM---->EI (.62) EM---->EO (.64) EA----->EO (.29) Insignificant Paths: EA---->EI (.01) EO---->EI (.09) -The participants agree on the quantitative results -Connecting, Merging (Confirmation) 3. The Generated Model Results showed that Entrepreneurial motivation, Entrepreneurial Alertness, Entrepreneurial opportunity and Entrepreneurial intentions are interrelated with each other. The women digital entrepreneurs singularly pointed out that Entrepreneurial Motivation is the Driver of Entrepreneurial intentions. -Connecting, Merging (Confirmation) Finally, women digital entrepreneurs unanimously pointed out their general impressions on the generated model: they singularly pointed out that the entrepreneurial motivation is the driver of entrepreneurial intention. CONCLUSION Structural modeling analyses showed that all the constructs in the model were precisely explained by their respective factors significantly. Both structural regression and measurement models showed that the data fit well. As to the qualitative phase, the informants confirmed and substantiated the quantitative results as shown by their respective themes, thus the nature of integration is connecting-merging(confirmation) which connotes that women entrepreneurs have copiously agreed that the statistical inferences reflect these four entrepreneurial traits: entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial opportunity and the same nature of integration for the final generated model, however, only entrepreneurial motivation was given primary emphasis denoting that the entrepreneurial intention of women digital entrepreneurs can be fully manifested in conjunction with the presence of strong entrepreneurial motivation. Practical and Theoretical Implications The results of this research undertaking allow me to arrive at two significant insights which we believe would be beneficial to our understanding of the role of women in the entrepreneurship landscape in developing states. First, understanding entrepreneurial intention is pivotal as to how we construct our appreciation of women entrepreneurship in the light of the digital era as this is also a way to promote and cultivate the entrepreneurship culture in our country. While our country may not be at par with the first-class economies and market leaders in digital entrepreneurship, it International Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship, Social Science and Humanities (IJMESH), Vol. 5 (2), 108- 126 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Women in the Context of Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Jonathan C Gano-an, Gloria P Gempes 122 │ ISSN 2580-0981 (online) is crucial that we should expand our knowledge about its systems, process, and structures, as this may have implications on the trends, practices, and even policies in the years ahead. The enormous entrepreneurial passion and the astonishing motivation of women digital entrepreneurs are extremely laudable. Combining economic aspirations (prosperity) and familial drive (the need to support them) to venture into selling online are some of the unique combinations of reasons why they choose to sell online. While it is true that women have already gained a spotlight in a seemingly male-dominated profession, can we allow their work and contribution to society just end there? Perhaps, this question will lead us to act on the next best move to finally bring them to the limelight- a sound policy for digital entrepreneurship. Second, the existing programs and projects initiated by various agencies that promote entrepreneurship and support entrepreneurs at all levels in this country have actually shared a substantial amount of help, even for those starting from scratch. Yet, the country still needs to realize some other goals in order to be competitive and at par with the other states in the region. The digital marketplace in the Philippines is a new platform both for consumers and entrepreneurs; while our laws continue to protect the rights of the former, we think it shall also include strong protection on the side of the entrepreneur. 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