Motivational factors, entrepreneurship and education: Study with reference to women in SMEs

For the past couple of years entrepreneurship development is considered as the priority area in the development policy in many countries, especially in India. The young entrepreneurs are engaged in varied form of small and medium scale enterprises ranging from paper to electronics, engineering to electrical, textile to metal and pipe industry, construction to food processing, education to handicrafts. The interesting fact is that the entrepreneurial ventures are making provision of more business options not only for men, but also for women, especially in rural and semi urban areas. Considering this trend, a study is conducted to analyze, what exactly motivate women entrepreneurs to get into small and medium scale entrepreneurial ventures. Relating entrepreneurship with educational institutions, it is hypothesized in this study that the identification of motivational factors among women may support educational institutions to tailor made their entrepreneurial program in tune with appropriate pedagogy and approach. In order to conduct the study SIDCO Industrial Estates in Madurai Region region is selected since it is populated with several small and medium scale enterprises. The respondents were the entrepreneurs who run small-scale industrial units of SIDCO Industrial Estate. Out of total population of 432, 144 small scale entrepreneurs have been taken as sample size. The data collected were analyzed on the basis of Descriptive Statistics, Correlation, Regression and Kruskal Wallis Test. The findings of this paper show the major factors which influence the motivation of women entrepreneurs in small and medium scale enterprises and its close relationship with the entrepreneurial factors. The study also suggests some measure for the educational institutions in order to make its pedagogue support their entrepreneurial development efforts of the country.