The entrepreneurial culture value patterns and business practices of small and medium enterprises in Sri Lanka based on selected case studies

Abstract

Entrepreneurial cultural values of Small Medium Entrepreneurs play an important role in the development of entrepreneurs/lip development. This paper is to study the entrepreneur value patterns and their business practices in Sri Lanka. This is a descriptive study and the analysis is qualitative based on Ten Textile and Jewelry- Trades in the City of Colombo and for the data collection a structural questionnaire was administered and personal inten'icws were conducted. It was found that the entrepreneurial cultural value system and their business practices are different from that of western entrepreneurs. The common business related practices found to be seen personalized leadership, centralized decision making, reluctant to delegate authority, informal recruitment policy, specific local market orientation, not using modern financial facilities and direct supervisions are based on their entrepreneurial values such as low initiatives, low risk tolerance, low level openness, medium level conflict tolerance and medium level supportiveness. However, the successful entrepreneurs' business practices such as benevolent authoritarian leadership, decentralized decision making, delegating authority to others, and expanding their local markets are highly influenced by their loyalty, medium openness, initiatives and risk tolerance and high conflict tolerance. Besides the researcher has found that there is a link between the background factors and the value systems of entrepreneurs. Therefore it gives new idea for the futureEntrepreneurial cultural values of Small Medium Entrepreneurs play an important role in the development of entrepreneurs/lip development. This paper is to study the entrepreneur value patterns and their business practices in Sri Lanka. This is a descriptive study and the analysis is qualitative based on Ten Textile and Jewelry- Trades in the City of Colombo and for the data collection a structural questionnaire was administered and personal inten'icws were conducted. It was found that the entrepreneurial cultural value system and their business practices are different from that of western entrepreneurs. The common business related practices found to be seen personalized leadership, centralized decision making, reluctant to delegate authority, informal recruitment policy, specific local market orientation, not using modern financial facilities and direct supervisions are based on their entrepreneurial values such as low initiatives, low risk tolerance, low level openness, medium level conflict tolerance and medium level supportiveness. However, the successful entrepreneurs' business practices such as benevolent authoritarian leadership, decentralized decision making, delegating authority to others, and expanding their local markets are highly influenced by their loyalty, medium openness, initiatives and risk tolerance and high conflict tolerance. Besides the researcher has found that there is a link between the background factors and the value systems of entrepreneurs. Therefore it gives new idea for the futureEntrepreneurial cultural values of Small Medium Entrepreneurs play an important role in the development of entrepreneurs/lip development. This paper is to study the entrepreneur value patterns and their business practices in Sri Lanka. This is a descriptive study and the analysis is qualitative based on Ten Textile and Jewelry- Trades in the City of Colombo and for the data collection a structural questionnaire was administered and personal inten'icws were conducted. It was found that the entrepreneurial cultural value system and their business practices are different from that of western entrepreneurs. The common business related practices found to be seen personalized leadership, centralized decision making, reluctant to delegate authority, informal recruitment policy, specific local market orientation, not using modern financial facilities and direct supervisions are based on their entrepreneurial values such as low initiatives, low risk tolerance, low level openness, medium level conflict tolerance and medium level supportiveness. However, the successful entrepreneurs' business practices such as benevolent authoritarian leadership, decentralized decision making, delegating authority to others, and expanding their local markets are highly influenced by their loyalty, medium openness, initiatives and risk tolerance and high conflict tolerance. Besides the researcher has found that there is a link between the background factors and the value systems of entrepreneurs. Therefore it gives new idea for the future researchers.