Exploring the Factors Affecting the Growth of Women Owned SMEs in Pakistan

Abstract

This study aims to identify the growth factors and their impacts on the SMEs owned by women in Pakistan, for this purpose, the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique of research was used. It was extensively studied how the identified factors impact the entrepreneurial abilities of women in Pakistan. Synthesis of previous literature was done to find out the factors that highly impact the growth of SMEs owned by women in Pakistan, later, the ISM model was obtained and applied to these factors, to find out the extent and nature of impacts. Not only the considered issue is of great importance, but also the implemented methodology bears great importance in the field of research, as it is being considered by researchers extensively. ISM technique has helped in identifying ranks and importance of the factors that significantly impact the growth of SMEs, studying these rank-wise results, women in Pakistan can minimize the level of issues and obstacles that come along on the way of the business ventures. Moreover, women in Pakistan can benefit from the positive factors to trigger the growth of the SMEs. Many factors were discovered that significantly impact the growth of SMEs owned by women in Pakistan, finding these factors have not only enhanced the literary importance of this study but the practical importance of the study has been enhanced as well. As, the inhibiting factors can be significantly minimized by enhancing the promoting factors.