Owner characteristics and health of SMEs in Pakistan

Purpose - A major frustration for most policy researchers in the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) area is the virtual non-existence of scientific data on this sector in the country. This paper aims to provide some data.Design methodology approach - A survey of 651 SMEs from the manufacturing s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of small business and enterprise development 2008-01, Vol.15 (1), p.130-149
Main Authors: Khurrum S. Bhutta, M, Rana, Arif I, Asad, Usman
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Corporate ownership
Data collection
Education
Employees
Entrepreneurship
Human resource management
Manufacturing
Market research firms
Ownership
Pakistan
Performance measures
Small & medium sized enterprises-SME
Small business
Small to mediumsized enterprises
Studies
Success
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Summary:Purpose - A major frustration for most policy researchers in the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) area is the virtual non-existence of scientific data on this sector in the country. This paper aims to provide some data.Design methodology approach - A survey of 651 SMEs from the manufacturing sector of Pakistan was conducted in 2003 and statistical analysis was carried out to analyze the data. This paper focuses on the relationship between the health indicators namely, sales employee, increase decrease in sales, and investment plans and the different personal characteristics of the owner entrepreneur.Findings - This analysis suggests that education, generation setting up the business, and number of partners have a significant relationship with the health of SMEs. Health of the firm is also dependent on owner habits like watching television, reading newspapers and using computers for office work. Other factors like caste of the owner and occupation of the owner's relatives were also analyzed, but no significant relationship with the health of an SME was observed.Practical implications - The implications of this study are far reaching in understanding the profiles of owners of SMEs in Pakistan and how these profiles impact the profitability of the firms.Originality value - To date no other such study has been carried out in Pakistan. Similar studies on owner profiles have previously been carried out in other countries such as the UK and USA.
ISSN:1462-6004
1758-7840
DOI:10.1108/14626000810850883