Entrepreneurial resilience and the wellbeing of women entrepreneurs in the hospitality and tourism industry of Uganda

Purpose The purpose of the study is to establish the impact of entrepreneurial resilience on the wellbeing of women entrepreneurs. The study also examines how individual dimensions of entrepreneurial resilience (hardiness, optimism and resourcefulness) impact the wellbeing of women entrepreneurs in the hospitality and tourism industry of Uganda. Design/methodology/approach This study is cross-sectional and used a self-administered questionnaire to gather data from women entrepreneurs. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences to run the descriptive, correlational and multiple regression analyses. Findings The results indicate that entrepreneurial resilience as a global variable significantly impacts wellbeing of women entrepreneurs and at the dimensional level, only hardiness significantly impacts the wellbeing of women entrepreneurs unlike optimism and resourcefulness. Originality/value This study is one of the limited investigations that have interrogated resilience and the wellbeing of women entrepreneurs using evidence from a developing nation where government and non-government organizations are still grappling with uplifting the position of women, including those engaged in entrepreneurial activities. The major contribution of this study lies in its focus on how the dimensions of entrepreneurial resilience explain the wellbeing of women entrepreneurs operating in Uganda’s hospitality and tourism industry which is mostly dominated by women compared to their male counterparts.