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@article{199196,
        author = {Amala Sen and Dr. Malliga AL},
        title = {An Empirical Study on Economic Independence and Family Well-Being among Women Entrepreneurs in Karnataka},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {11},
        pages = {12509-12517},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=199196},
        abstract = {Women entrepreneurship has emerged as a vital pathway for women to gain economic empowerment and bring about social change in developing countries. Even though there are increasing numbers of women participating in business, they still experience barriers to economic empowerment through financial access, training and education and sociocultural barriers which can affect their economic independence and family well-being. The purpose of this study is to identify the major factors affecting the economic independence of women entrepreneurs in select districts in Karnataka, and assess how women entrepreneurship affects family wellbeing and quality of life. The study used a descriptive research approach, and it gathered the data from 473 women who own small businesses (micro-enterprises) in the selected eight districts of Karnataka by employing a purposive sampling strategy. The findings reveal that both Family Support (Mean = 3.632), and Self-Confidence and Resilience (Mean = 3.558) were the most prominent factors to influence Economic Independence. In terms of the impacts on family wellbeing, those which had the greatest impact included improved Financial Stability (Mean = 3.584) and Educational Support (Mean = 3.564). Through a process of factor analysis, it was determined that there were five main factors that explained 46.69% of the total variance in the study. Additionally, these same results indicated that Financial Access and External Support were the two dominant factors. Finally, through a one-way ANOVA, it was shown that there were significant associations between several demographic characteristics and each of the different dimensions of Entrepreneurship. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that all five factor components significantly predict family well-being (R² = 0.578, F = 128.141, p = 0.000) and personal empowerment (R² = 0.616, F = 149.654, p = 0.000). Thus, there is a need for enhanced training, financial access and institutional support in order to strengthen the economic independence and family outcomes of women entrepreneurs in Karnataka.},
        keywords = {Women entrepreneurship, Economic independence, Family well-being, Personal empowerment, Micro enterprises, Karnataka.},
        month = {April},
        }