Abstract:
Research in Asia shows that females and males exhibit significantly different priority in production and consumption. Female contribute larger proportions of their personal income toward household expenditures than males and thus are able to retain less profit for reinvestment. This study explores a comparative study of women and men entrepreneurs’ styles and organizational performance of small scale entrepreneurs in Vavuniya District. The main objective of this study is to compare the relationship between genders’ style and organizational performance of small scale entrepreneurs in Vavuniya District. This study utilized data from 200 small scale entrepreneur those who are registered under the Industrial Development Board, Vavuniya. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (Principle Component with Varimax rotation) of independent variable – entrepreneurs’ style, and moderating variables – decision-making and employee morale were measured by using the SPSS package. Then the regression results of independent and dependent variables were measured by structural equation model using the AMOS (Analysis of Movement Structure).
The results of this study indicated that the Chi-square (X2) value of genders (men=5.862, p=0.210 & women=2.739, p= 0.602) is insignificant level. Further the models are evaluated with a variety of fit indices such as CMIN/DF, GFI, CFI, NFI, and RMSEA. The results indicate that the data fit the model marginally well in the mediating effects of decision-making, employee turnover, and employee morale between Entrepreneurs’ styles (participative style) and firm performance in this study (Women CMIN/DF = 0.685, GFI = 0.974, CFI=1.000, NFI=0.935, and RMSEA=0.000 and men CMIN/DF = 1.465, GFI = 0.987, CFI = 0.983, NFI = 0.952, and RMSEA = 0.051). Squared Multiple Correlation value of performance in male is .52 and Female .65. The results indicated that the women Participative leadership style has more effective than the men entrepreneurs’ Participative leadership style in small scale entrepreneurship.
