Challenges facing women entrepreneurs in Montenegro
3.3 Case Studies The factors above caused me to narrow my sample down even further. Although conducting case studies limited the number of women interviewed, there were a number of advantages. The more informal atmosphere of one-on-one interviews creates a more comfortable atmosphere, making the local women more at ease and more willing to open up, allowing the collection of in-depth information. Moreover, I hope that this will be just the first part of a larger research project. Gathering descriptive data allows the most important themes to be identified. Results can be used as a basis for designing a survey in the future that will target the entire population of female entrepreneurs. 3.4 Data Gathering Methods and Target Subjects As the author is an outsider in this culture and would not be able to anticipate exactly what turn the interviews might take, data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The structure allowed the conversations to move into other areas that pertained to the topic. A set of questions to guide the sessions can be found in Appendix I. These were used for all of the interviews. The women entrepreneurs studied for this project were identified in a number of ways. Some were recommended by friends of the author, while others were tracked down through lending programs. All participated on a voluntary basis. The subjects were female entrepreneurs working in a variety of conditions in Montenegro. These women are similar only in that they are female Montenegrin entrepreneurs. The goal was to gather information about the different situations women might find themselves in. Subjects included: • A woman from a relatively wealthy family who owns a chain of dry cleaning stores • A doctor who has had her own medical practice for 10 years, throughout the war years • A woman who owns a beauty parlor, who received a loan from a micro enterprise fund • A women who received government credits to start her company • A woman operating in the gray economy. Two of the interviews were conducted in English, while the other four were conducted in Serbian with the help of a translator.
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