What influence the business success of micro small & medium enterprises: Analysis from rural and urban Assam

This study strives to know if the factors influencing business success are uniform across all the three categories of MSMEs; identical for male and female entrepreneurs and universal in rural and urban areas. Based on 320 registered MSMEs from two districts of Assam, the study uses two criterions for defining a small business as successful: minimum five years survival as on 31^st March 2018 and revenue greater than cost. The study recognises 16 factors that influence the success which are grouped into three categories: MSME characteristics; entrepreneur characterises and business characteristics. The findings identifies two sets of factors influencing the success, first, the vital factors (VFs) which are quintessential for performance and success and the critical factors (CFs) which are desired for the survival of an enterprise. These are found to be considerably different across the different sized MSMEs; male and female entrepreneurs and differ in rural and urban area.