Abstract:
Extant literature has argued that networking by entrepreneurs will uplift business
standards and performance. Yet, the networking behavioural analysis has
overlooked integrating women’s social behaviour in small and medium scale
businesses. Thus, the study attempts to disentangle these issues by designing a
mediator model that encapsulates women’s self-esteem’s mediator role in applying
networking behaviour to achieve performance. Using simple random sampling, data
were collected from 290 women entrepreneurs running small and medium scale
businesses in the Western Province, Sri Lanka. The study developed the Structural
Equation Model, which involved analysing the entrepreneur’s attitudes and
behaviours on networking (pro-activeness, commitment, strategy, and openness),
self-esteem, and performance. The study ascertained a significant relationship
between social networking behaviour and performance, and this relationship has
been mediated by self-esteem. Accordingly, the study confirmed the vitality of social
networking in enhancing business performance. Further, the study redounds to
filling the gaps in the literature by contributing to the theory with an intensive focus
on women entrepreneurs and the empirical gap in the concept of female
entrepreneurial networking. Our study also suggests that future research could pay
attention to how these networking behaviours of women entrepreneurs vary in
terms of the individual and social factors associated with their businesses.
