Abstract:
This study is aimed to contributing to the entrepreneurship literature by identifying
factors affecting women entrepreneurs' performance and business success. This also
examines the opportunity recognition as a mediator between influencing factors and the
performance of women entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach the study
proposes a model that shows the effects of different factors on women entrepreneurs'
performance & business success. The paper demonstrates several challenges that are
encountered by women entrepreneurs such as lack of access to financial resources,
access to market, access to education, access to information & network, the work
family interface, legal barriers & procedure, lack of social support, and low income.
The study used both primary and secondary data sources. The quantitative survey was
employed taking a sample of I l8 respondents selected through a simple random
sampling technique to collect data through a questionnaire, data were analyzed and
interpreted using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis
based on SPSS 2.0.0. And the discussion was used to consolidate and verify the results.
The results suggest that the economic, social & cultural factors mostly influence
unfavorably on women entrepreneur performance. However, the Legal & Admin
factors influence as a favor to their business perseverance. Research
limitations/implications as the study are conducted at Kathankudy Division in
Batticaloa District, it may lack generalization. In future research, it is advisable to
expand more study factors, use peer groups interviews as a research tool especially for
Kathankudy and make comparisons between women and men entrepreneurial
performances.
The paper can help increase women entrepreneurs' performance and enable them to
make use of the lousiness environment in a more efficient and effective way. Although
several papers already exist that discuss issues on women entrepreneurs, there has been
little research focusing on factors affecting the business success and performance of
women entrepreneurs, particularly at Kathankudy Division, Batticaloa. Our study
explores important issues and calls for more research in this domain.
