Women Entrepreneurial Characteristics in Developing Successful Brands in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Expansion of women in higher positions of the organizations and emerging trend of women entrepreneurs has enhanced the scholarly interest in the field of women entrepreneurship and their characteristics. Nevertheless, the contribution of them is still invisible in emerging economies. Developed and established economies have been the focus of many researchers whereas the author has focused on Sri Lanka, an emerging economy to understand the contribution of women entrepreneurs. Main objective of this research is to understand the how women entrepreneurs have developed successful brands in Sri Lanka and how they have used their innate femininity in developing their businesses. Industries focused by the researcher in order to obtain an understanding of the women entrepreneurial characteristics were fashion, bakery and cosmetics in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Seminal literature for the research was focused on ten women entrepreneur characteristics. This research was conducted as a qualitative research. Primary data collection has been done using in- depth interviews with three women entrepreneurs selected by purposive sampling method and participant and non-participant observations with data triangulation. Based on the literature an interview guide was prepared and the data was collected. The richer interpretations have been derived from the in-depth interviews and narratives were built using the stories narrated. Data has been analysed using thematic analysis. Practical implication of this research is to identify the unique entrepreneurial characteristics and use them to enhance the women led businesses in emerging economies.

Keywords: Women Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurial Characteristics, Brand Development, Emerging Economies