Facilitating Ethnic Women Entrepreneurship in Aotearoa: The Case Study of WEC

Women Entrepreneurship Centre As The Case Study

As a university senior lecturer, a co-author of this chapter, Karmokar, works and teaches in the area of women’s entrepreneurship studies. The other co-author Ray, on the other hand, has conducted workshops in tertiary institutions in Aotearoa helping students realise their entrepreneurial skills. Both of their backgrounds have shaped this paper and form the basis of their research. In 2015, Karmokar was instrumental in launching the Women Entrepreneurship Centre (WEC) in Auckland, New Zealand, in response to the government’s objective, to uphold the significant role that informal networks have on the motivation of ethnic entrepreneurs (Masurel et al. 2002). To encourage ethnic women from diverse backgrounds to find a space in the world, and to discover their skills, strengths and talents, comprise the primary objectives of WEC. It provides an incubation pathway (Hughes et al., 2007) to aspiring entrepreneurs, irrespective of where they are at with their business projects. This paper will analyse the role WEC plays in paving the way for ethnic migrant entrepreneurs to enter the New Zealand workforce, adding their diversity to the mix of business professionals.