Networking towards Performance

Abstract

This paper is an empirical investigation of the impact of networking on the performance of small enterprises managed by women entrepreneurs in Matara district, Sri Lanka. The main objective of the study was to determine the impact of networking and to what extent factors of networking contribute to performance changes of small enterprises managed by women. A secondary objective was to find the most influencing networking factor in formulating a composite index of networking. The population of this study was all the women entrepreneurs who have registered with the Chamber of Commerce, Matara district by January 2008. The correlation results confirmed that networking is significantly correlate with performance of women entrepreneurs managing small and medium scale enterprises. Findings regarding the significance of the relationship between the studied main three variables of networking (network type, supportive role of network and network activity) and performance showed that network type and supportive role of networking were having significant positive relationship while network activity was not having significant relationship. The multiple regression models, testing the influence of networking index on performance revealed that networking is significantly influencing for performance. However all three factors of networking studied (network type, supportive role of network and network activity) were not significantly affecting for performance. Further it is interesting to note that among the six factors of supportive role of networking, the emotional support is the only significant factor for performance..