Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Sindh: Role of Socio Economic, Cultural and Political factors

Abstract

The small and medium businesses played a significant role in economic development of Pakistan, specifically province of Sindh. SME’s can provide the economy with efficiency, innovation, competition and growth. This paper evaluates factors which affect the growth of small and medium enterprises. These factors include environment of operating business, societal pressures, cultural orientations, political instability, law and order situations and entrepreneurs’ demographics such as age, educational levels are responsible for success of the SME’s. To evaluate the impact of environment and various characteristics of entrepreneurs on small business this study is conducted. This paper evolves the features, characteristics and growth aspects of entrepreneurs in Sindh; including the contributions, relationships and roles that family and culture play in the improvement of private SME’s. Small and medium enterprises are significantly influenced by certain factors which have been empirically tested to find the impact of those factors on growth of SME’s. The findings of the study suggest that entrepreneurs launch business ventures for the need of independence in working and flexibility of timing. Female entrepreneurs were found to rely heavily on family member support and participation to set up and maintaining their enterprises. It is also revealed that there exists a strong correlation between business performance and external factors which affect business directly along with certain factors implied.