Entrepreneurship has played an important role in economic growth, innovation, competitiveness and in poverty alleviation. This study investigated the degree of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) of twenty five manufacturing Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Hambantota District, Sri Lanka (HDSL) and the effects of EO dimensions including proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk taking to business performance. Interviews were used as the main instrument for data collection. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were applied for data analysis. Findings showed about 52% of SMEs in HDSL represented moderate level of EO. Proactiveness, innovativeness, risk taking and overall EO were significantly correlated with market share growth. Results further indicated there were positive correlations among proactiveness and EO with business performance. This study could be useful for policy makers to plan their activities towards entrepreneurship development of SMEs in HDSL.

New venture creations are vital for the economic growth of any country because of its contribution to employment generation, employment generation, GDP, innovations and value additions. Though a large number of new venture creations occur every year in Sri Lanka, research findings highlighted that a smaller percentage was able to survive. Hence, the number of business establishments cannot be considered as a meaningful indicator of economic growth of the country and the high failure rate is a crucial issue. Past studies revealed that business startup motives effect on the business growth and Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) plays a crucial role in directing the business towards success. Studies are lacking about the impact of business startup motives on the success and survival of newly established ventures and the mediating role of the EO on the relationship between start-up motives and new venture success. Therefore, the present study focused to reveal whether significant relationship exists between business startup motives and growth expectations; growth expectations between the necessity driven (NDEs) and opportunity driven entrepreneurs (ODEs); and whether EO plays a mediating role on the relationship between business startup motives and growth expectations. Independent Sample T test and Structural Equation Modeling were applied to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that significant difference exists between the NDEs and ODEs in terms of proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy and no significant difference exists in growth expectations between the NDEs and ODEs. Entrepreneurial Orientation partially mediates the relationship between business startup motives and growth expectations.

This research aims to enhance the understanding of the relationship between management quality and workforce quality on organizational performance. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data to measure the constructs of variables. The target population of this study was the management level employees at one of the foremost engineering company in Sri Lanka. A sample of 104 employees were randomly selected for interviews comprising of the all three levels of top, middle and lower levels of management and few customers were randomly selected to measure their level of satisfaction of the services offered, to illustrate the organisational performance. The study applied quantitaive method and regression analysis to analyze data. Findings show that there is a significant positive relationship between workforce quality and orgnizaional performance as well as management quality and organizational performance.

No abstract

New venture creations have been considered as importance for the economic growth of any country because of its contribution to the Gross Domestic Production, diversification of local economy, employment generation, creation of innovations and value additions. Though a large number of new venture creations occur every year in Sri Lanka, recent research findings highlighted that a smaller percentage from those were able to grow and survive. Hence, number of business establishments cannot be considered as a meaningful indicator of economic growth of the country and why such a high failure rate was reported has become a crucial issue. Past studies revealed that business startup motives of the entrepreneur effect on the growth and survival of the SMEs. However, concentration on the impact of business startup motives on the success and survival of newly established ventures is lacking. Further, Entrepreneurial Orientation plays a crucial role in directing the business towards success. However, still there is a gap in the literature relating to the mediating role of the entrepreneurial orientation in the link between start-up motives and new venture success. Therefore, present study attempted to answer the research questions as; is there a significant relationship between the business startup motives and growth expectations; is there a significant difference exists in growth expectations between the necessity driven and opportunity driven entrepreneurs; and whether Entrepreneurial Orientation plays a mediating role. Independent Sample T test and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were applied to test the hypotheses based on a sample of 120 micro and small-scale entrepreneurs from Southern province of Sri Lanka. Findings revealed that there is a significant difference between the necessity driven entrepreneurs and opportunity driven entrepreneurs in terms of proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy. Results show that there is no any significant difference exist in growth expectations between the necessity driven entrepreneurs and opportunity driven entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Orientation partially mediates the relationship between business startup motives and growth expectations. Keywords: Business startup motives; Entrepreneurial orientation; Growth expectations; Necessity driven and Opportunity driven entrepreneurs; Micro and Small Enterprises.