Abstract:
Sri Lankan women have only recently taken an active role in the business sector of the
country. However, they are seemed competing on an equal footing with the men, in
the business field. This empirical investigation attempted to understand the impact of
personal and industrial factors on the business performance of women entrepreneurs
in Sri Lanka.
This empirical study examined the applicability of five theoretical perspectives derived
from studies in USA and Israel. These five theoretical perspectives include Motivation
and Goals, Social Learning Theory, Network Affiliation Human Capital and industrial
factors. Each of these variables was operationalized using 4 or 5 dimensions and sub
dimensions. This study sheds light on the explanatory power of these five perspectives
in the Sri Lankan context.
Six hypotheses and six major research questions were developed and tested. A survey
was conducted to gather primary data by selecting 100 small business women from
Galle, Colombo and Ratnapura districts and that data was analyzed using multiple
linear regression analysis and Pearson’s correlation analysis. The reliability was tested
using Chronbatch’s Alfa value method and all the variables carried equal or above
0.65.
The best fit model of the multiple linier regression includes only three variables such
as Motivation & Goals, Human Capital and Industrial factors and excludes the Social
Learning Theory and Network Affiliation because their ability to predict the Business
Performance is negligible. The correlation analysis too showed strong positive
correlations between Business Performance of Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs
and Motivation & Goals and Human Capital. Social Learning Theory and Network
Affiliation showed positive correlations with Business Performance. But the
relationships were not much vivid. There is a very strong positive correlation between
Business Performance of small business women and Industrial factors with a 0.721 of
coefficient of correlation at a 99% significant level.
Sabaragamuwa University Journal
Volume 11 Number 1; December 2012, pp 139-165
ISSN 1391-3166
140
Overall, this research suggests that theories regarding women entrepreneurship
in particular, derived from researches in developed countries need to be carefully
examined and tested before being used in developing or non-developed country
contexts like Sri Lanka. But in special cases those theories can be applied with slight
modifications so that many benefits can be gained from them.
