1Associate Faculty Member, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), Guwahati, Assam
2Assistant Professor, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR), North Eastern Regional Centre, Guwahati, Assam. Email: atnabhuyan.nird@gov.in
The present paper, which is based on a survey of 80 rural micro enterprises across four districts of Assam, identified using multi-stage random sampling procedure, is an attempt to explore the performance efficiency of rural micro enterprises across four major enterprise activities and its influence on growth. The paper examines performance efficiency of rural micro enterprises and its influence on growth by way of constructing two indices viz. performance efficiency index and growth index. The analysis of performance efficiency index and growth index reveals that the enterprises of the state are lagging behind in both the aspects. Further, the use of value chain analysis for ascertaining the performance efficiency in the context of the micro enterprise sector in the state puts forth the need to emphasise upon technology incorporation, enhancing market reach, and intervening in product design and development to help the micro enterprises in achieving competitiveness. In addition, the results suggest a significant positive influence of performance efficiency in terms of time, cost and manpower on the growth of rural micro enterprises. Therefore, in order to facilitate accelerated growth of the rural micro enterprises, policy initiatives for enhancing performance of the rural micro enterprises with respect to time, cost efficiency and manpower involved coupled with addressing aspects like access to technology, market and support for product design and diversification is the need of the hour.
Rural micro enterprises, Micro enterprise growth, Performance efficiency
