Critical Success Factors of the Women Entrepreneurs with Special Reference to Dress Making Industries in Matara District

Abstract

Entrepreneurs are the live wire towards country’s development and advancement of standard of living of people, and wealth creation (Perera and et al, 2007). In Sri Lanka women have engaged in different types of entrepreneurial activities in the country. Among them, dress making industry is most popular among the women entrepreneurs since they have knowledge, skills and resources for stat up a business. Although, many women have engaged dress making industry, they all are not successes same. Therefore, it is important to find out success factors of the women entrepreneurs in dress making industries. The objecti ve of this paper was to explore the most critical success factors of the women entrepreneurs in dress making <e industry in Matara District? Moreover, the research was aimed to find the factors that influence on the success of the women entrepreneurs. The research was conducted as a survey, where a structured questionnaire was administered among a sample of 50 women entrepreneurs. Sample was selected using random sampling technique to make sure that at least 25% of the population is included in the sample. Questionnaire was based on prior literature (Hisrich and Fttldp, 1997, Lemer et al, 1997 Kalyani and Chandralekha, 2002, Huck and McEwen, 1991, Hess, 1987), where respondents were provided with 7 options ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. Mean comparison and t-test were used to prove the hypotheses. Research rejected the first hypothesis which was based on the success factors that foster the entrepreneurship in the Matara is limited. Moreover, research accepted the second aid third hypothesis also which based on that education level influences on the success of the > women entrepreneurs in dress making industry, and age influences on the success of the women entrepreneurs in dress making industry.