FACTORS AFFECTING THE BUSINESS SUCCESS AND PERFORMANCE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS AT KATTANKUDY DIVISION, IN BATTICALOA DISTRICT

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.