Cultural Values, Social Capital, and Entrepreneurial Competence Among Women Entrepreneurs in Banda Aceh

Abstract

Background: Women dominate micro and small food-and-beverage enterprises in Banda Aceh (approximately 65% of the sector's workforce), yet prior research on Acehnese women entrepreneurs has mainly examined business performance or entrepreneurial intention, leaving the cultural and social antecedents of entrepreneurial competence under-explored.
Purpose: This study examines the influence of cultural values and social capital on the entrepreneurial competence of women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional survey was administered to 200 women entrepreneurs who had owned and actively managed a food or beverage business for at least one year, selected through a two-stage purposive procedure (purposive selection of the two sub-districts with the highest concentration of women-run food and beverage businesses, followed by purposive selection of eligible respondents within them). Data were collected between December 2024 and June 2025 using a structured questionnaire on a 7-point Likert scale and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Cultural values (leadership, gender equality) and social capital (structural, relational, and cognitive) were specified as second-order formative constructs reflected by first-order reflective dimensions, following Nahapiet and Ghoshal (2009) and House et al. (2004).
Findings/Results: Cultural values were positively and significantly associated with entrepreneurial competence (β = 0.465; t = 9.879; p < 0.001), and social capital was positively and significantly associated with entrepreneurial competence (β = 0.498; t = 10.780; p < 0.001). Together, they explained 85.8% of the variance in entrepreneurial competence (R² = 0.858; adjusted R² = 0.856; Q²predict = 0.855). Social capital showed a somewhat larger association, with its relational (trust-based) dimension the strongest contributor.
Conclusion: Cultural values and social capital are positively associated with the entrepreneurial competence of women entrepreneurs in Banda Aceh's food and beverage industry. Because the design is cross-sectional, these results describe an association, not a causal effect; longitudinal or experimental designs are needed to establish causality.
Originality/value (state of the art): By treating entrepreneurial competence — rather than performance or intention–as the outcome variable and modeling cultural values and social capital as formative second-order constructs within Aceh's syariah-adat institutional setting, this study provides empirical evidence on how cultural and social resources jointly shape women's entrepreneurial capability in a context where religious, customary, and gender norms are closely intertwined.

Keywords: cultural values, social capital, entrepreneurial competence, women entrepreneurs, and food and beverage industry