Women's Business Development in Uzbekistan's Digital Economy: The Role of Digital Skills and Support

This paper focuses on the evolution of women’s businesses in Uzbekistan and considers the social and financial barriers to women's entrepreneurship. Yet, digitalisation has a new potential now, and the young women of Uzbekistan are empowered with it, still, the digital divide exists, financial inclusion remains an issue, and harassment remains a culture. There is scant empirical literature that addresses these factors within an econometric modelling approach to fill the knowledge gap. Respondents include 50 participants, where a Logistic Regression Model was used to assess the moderating effect of digital literacy, the availability of financial resources, socio-cultural factors, and government support to business performance. The results show that digital literacy (0.85 ) and governmental support (0.90 ) have a positive influence on success whilst socio-cultural factors have a negative impact (- 0.60 ). As for a set of four empowering factors, financial access (β = 0.72) was also considered as one of the key enablers of women entrepreneurs. These findings are consistent with prior research; highlighting the inadequacy of digital skills development and gender sensitive financial interventions. The conclusion is that gendered policy measures on economic digitization and innovations, financial inclusion, social inclusion as well as cultural restructuring should form the key strategies for promoting the humanitarian model of entrepreneurship. If addressed such factors will contribute to the development of women entrepreneurs in Uzbekistan leading to growth of the overall economy. The limitation of existing studies is the lack of sufficient information about the context in which gender barriers are framed to enhance women’s sustainable digital business development, which calls for the involvement of private organizations and state programs such as “Digital Uzbekistan 2030” as well as social campaigns that inspire women to work without prejudice