Gender differences in constraints faced by micro entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka

The investigation of entrepreneurial success and failure causes is the major imperative. Empirical evidence shows that most of start-ups entering the market disappear at their first, five years after establishment. Because of these results, it is important to investigate difficulties faced by entrepreneurs in the course of creating and running their business. In this setting, researchers have identified number of traditional factors that have contributed to the failure of this sector. In this context, this study aims at identifying whether these traditional factors still affect the development of the micro business sector. Moreover, empirical evidences indicate that women entrepreneurs are less successful than their male counterparts. The investigation of the sources of this fact leads to the relationship between the gender and entrepreneurial difficulties. The data were gathered by a sample of 250 entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka, who are engaged in the manufacturing sector by using questionnaire and interview. Findings revealed that traditional factors such as finance and other resource difficulties, lack of business plans, networking, marketing and lack of desire for innovation still play an important role in determining the success of the small business sector and gender is non-significant to the business success.