Linking technology adoption to entrepreneurial resilience: a capability-based study of rural women entrepreneurs in Oman

Abstract

This study examines how technology adoption contributes to entrepreneurial resilience among rural women entrepreneurs operating within resource-constrained entrepreneurial ecosystems in Oman. Drawing on a capability-based perspective, entrepreneurial resilience is conceptualised as an adaptive entrepreneurial outcome reflected in market expansion and creativity rather than as a psychological trait. A quantitative survey of 142 rural women entrepreneurs operating predominantly informal, home-based enterprises in the Dhofar Governorate of Oman was conducted. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), reliability and validity assessments, correlation analysis, and multiple regression were employed to examine the relationships between technology-related factors and entrepreneurial resilience. Four empirical dimensions emerged: Growth and Innovation Orientation; Technical and Resource Challenges; Training and Support Needs; and Market Expansion and Creativity. Regression results show that the Training and Support Needs factor exhibits the strongest positive association with entrepreneurial resilience, followed by Growth and Innovation Orientation, whereas Technical and Resource Challenges are not statistically significant after controlling for the remaining factors. The findings support a capability-based explanation in which digital technologies contribute to entrepreneurial resilience through entrepreneurs' adaptive use of digital resources, rather than through access to technology alone. The study makes three contributions. First, it extends digital entrepreneurship theory by showing that digital technologies function as entrepreneurial resources whose contribution to entrepreneurial resilience depends on entrepreneurs' capability development rather than technology adoption alone. Second, it reconceptualises entrepreneurial resilience as an observable adaptive entrepreneurial outcome. Third, it advances contextual entrepreneurship by demonstrating how entrepreneurial capability develops through the interaction of digital resources, institutional support, and gendered entrepreneurial ecosystems in a resource-constrained rural context.