Abstract:
Entrepreneurs are the live wire towards country’s development and advancement of
living of people and wealth creation. The contribution of the small business sector
cannot be underestimated to the overall performances of any country. In Sri Lanka
this scenario is highly accepted. Small scale manufacturing enterprises are
accounted for approximately 1% of country’s GDP. Therefore it is necessary to
investigate about small scale manufacturing enterprises in the country. In Sri Lanka
most of the small scale manufacturing enterprises discontinue within a few period
of their start up. If these businesses continue, there is a considerable variability in
their rate of growth. So it is important to identify the critical factors that influence to
the success of small scale manufacturing enterprises. Hence this research attempted
to identify the most important critical factor that affect to the success of the business
and the relationship between the critical factors and the success of small scale
manufacturing enterprises. The critical factors consisted of two parts as individual
factors and environmental factors. Both individual and environmental factors
comprised with ten key variables. Success of small scale manufacturing enterprises
also measured using five variables. The primary data was collected using the survey
method. The population represented all small scale manufacturing enterprises which
registered at Divisional Secretariat office in Matara District in 2009. Fifty
respondents were randomly selected for the sample by using the register. A self
administrated questionnaire was designed to identify the attitudes of small scale
manufacturing entrepreneurs. The questionnaire consisted of three sections. The
first part covered with general demographic questions. Second segment of it
comprised of details about the individual factors and environmental factors. Final
part of the questionnaire covered with entrepreneurs’ attitudes about their success.
The secondary data was collected from the previous research findings and
magazines that are related to this field. Correlation and regression were used to
analysis the data. The findings of the study showed that there was a strong positive
relationship between the critical factors and the success of small scale
manufacturing enterprises. Both individual and environmental factors positively
correlated with business success. The researcher revealed that risk taking recorded
as the most influential factor under the individual factors and promotion was
recognized as the most influential factor under the environmental factors.
