Publication

Abstract : A co-creation methodology is proposed, combining systems-thinking and remote participatory research to engage women entrepreneurs and institutional stakeholders to prioritize impact, response actions, and recovery needs in the wake of COVID-19. A ranking exercise using the Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to derive ranking and assess user inputs' consistency. The study aims at co-creating a "Priority Action Roadmap for Women's Economic Empowerment," based on women's top priorities to charting recovery directions. Doing so contributes to the growing body of knowledge on COVID-19 literature in at least four areas: (i) assessing COVID-19 impacts on women entrepreneurs; (ii) mapping these impacts with four interdependent women's entrepreneurial ecosystem components; (iii) innovating a co-creation methodology based on remote participatory research: (iv) providing a replicable model to perform action-oriented research in the context of COVID-19 impacts. The study exemplifies the integration of participatory methods and mathematical tool to engage stakeholders in prioritizing recovery work. PARWEE action items ranked by entrepreneurs and vetted by institutional stakeholders cover: access to finances, capacity building, healthcare, public and private partnership, marketing opportunities, and formation of active advocacy groups to voice out women entrepreneurs' needs to institutional stakeholders. Results show a slight difference in the ranking of priority actions between experience owners and fresh starters. This study innovated a new co-creation methodology for remotely engaging stakeholders of the women's entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is grounded in evidence and provides a replicable model for performing action-oriented research.