The integration of woman-owned micro-small enterprises in urban markets in Khartoum State, Sudan

This study attempts to shed more light on the economic participation and involvement of women in productive activities as part of their role as actors in the development process within their communities, a role which women have historically assumed within rural and urban areas. This study aims to investigate the situation of WEs, those owning and operating MSEs in urban settings, to depict their entrepreneurial/managerial capacities that have led them to success. This implies answering the how question of entrepreneurship. The study adheres to the qualitative research paradigms and perspectives which works towards social inquiry and the construction of a theory of entrepreneurship as a social phenomenon. It applies a multifaceted approach using the interpretive paradigm and incorporates gender and feminist perspectives in search of legitimate knowledge about the phenomenon. Within this interpretive paradigm the study has applied the grounded theory (GT) methodology which is a general methodology for the development of a theory that is grounded on data systematically collected and analyzed in an iterative way. GT evolves during actual research, and it does so through continuous interplay between data collection and data analysis in an iterative way till a complete integrated theory is developed. Some central features embrace this methodology: 1) its emphasis on discovery and on developing (substantive) theory, inductively grounded on data; 2) not to start with a predetermined theory or hypothesis to test; 3) the use of a method of comparative analysis and asking of questions; 4) use of theoretical sampling methods; 5) systematic coding procedures; 6)context and process sensitivity denoting flexibility, 7) conceptual density implying richness of concept development, interpretations and verification of the emergent hypotheses and their relationships and 8) building a theory in a form of rich text(story-line) of the interpretations, a theory that fits the data and grounded on it.