Determinants Influencing the Growth of Women-Owned Micro and Small Businesses: A Quantitative Study of Rural Areas in Sindh Province

Abstract

This study looks into the multi faceted drivers that determine the development of women owned micro and small businesses in rural Sindh Province in Pakistan. Following a quantitative approach, where data was gathered on 300 nascent female entrepreneurs in various rural districts of Sindh area, the analysis has been done using SPSS in its preliminary analysis and hence structural model and moderation analysis using smart PLS-SEM. The seven significant hypotheses in the research are the direct effects of the skills of the owner, family, social, market, and technological variables on the development of the business, as well as the modifying activities of the type of the business sector and governmental support. The findings support the hypothesis of innovative ability of the owner, the family support mechanism, and the digital adoption as key contributors to the growth of the business with significant and positive effects, whereas social aspects manifest a more complicated dual effect. Market factors indicate indirect and not direct effects. Notably, the examined study determines that the statistical significance of the moderating effects of both business industry and government subsistence has been important to multiple growth associations. These results offer the empirical evidence of the intersectional nature of the entrepreneurial success in conservative rural areas and present specific advice to policymakers, development organizations, and support organizations. The study enhances the use of the Resource-Based View and the Institutional Theory in the understanding of women micro-enterprises in third world economies and provides practical information necessary in the designing of context sensitive interventions, which can mitigate the never-ending obstacle women entrepreneurs in various fields of business.