ABSTRACT
Elena Aculai, Nelly Rodionova and Natalia Vinogradova Introduction The deep economic crisis of the 1990s in Moldova was accompanied by the bankruptcy of many large-scale state-owned enterprises. As a result, tens of thousand of citizens became unemployed in a short period of time. Operating a small-scale private business became one of a few methods of earning a living at that time, and this still holds true today. One implication of the existence of such strong ‘push’ factors into business ownership is the extent to which such people possess the characteristics and skills necessary to run a business. This is of particular importance with respect to women entrepreneurs, because of the circumstances in which many women enter business ownership.
