Research Paper
Year: 2020 | Month: December | Volume: 7 | Issue: 12 | Pages: 281-287
Entrepreneurial Skills of Microentrepreneurs in Kerala
Jini Thomas
Asst. Professor, Dept. of Commerce, Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam
ABSTRACT
Background: Entrepreneurship is the process of opening new ventures in response to the opportunities identified and pursuing them on the basis of the resources under control and introduces something novel to the world, whose market is associated with uncertainty. Entrepreneurship development is considered as the engine for transforming the society. Globalization and the information technology explosion directed Indian economy to enter into a new economic era. Entrepreneurs are the centre of every industrial activity specifically, the economic landscape of India is being altered through the development of micro small and medium enterprises. Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organisations in response to identified business opportunities. The individual performance of micro entrepreneurs in Kerala means the improvement in their business skills. The analysis of business skills developed by the micro entrepreneurs in Kerala has been made by reckoning variables, such as leadership, management, knowledge, and marketing skills.
Aim: The present study has been undertaken to evaluate the entrepreneurial skill and development of micro enterprises in Kerala with special reference to Malappuram district.
Materials and methods: The scope of the study is limited to the evaluation of entrepreneurial skills possessed by the male micro entrepreneurs in Malappuram district of Kerala. The respondents of the study were 50 male micro manufactures in Malappuram District . The data were suitably classified and analyzed based on the objective of the study. Statistical tools like percentages, chi-square test, and Friedman repeated measures analysis of variance on ranks have been applied for analyzing the data. Analysis was done via statistical software SPSS 21.0.
Results: The mean rank comparison of leadership skills developed by the micro entrepreneurs in Malappuram district revealed that ‘I am able to manage a team solely’ (3.80) is the most important leadership skill developed by them after becoming an entrepreneur .‘I am able to give technical advice to my employees/others’ (3.39) was the most important knowledge skill developed by the micro entrepreneurs of Malappuram district in Kerala. Based on the mean rank, it is observed that ‘I am able to retain all my customers’ (4.37) was the most important marketing skill developed by the micro entrepreneurs in Malappuram district. Based on the mean rank, it was found out that ‘I can set clearly defined goals’ (4.517) was the most important management skill developed by the micro entrepreneurs of Malappuram district in Kerala.
Conclusion: The data analysis revealed that a majority of the micro entrepreneurs fall under the age group of 20 to 60 years. Muslims were more involved in entrepreneurship in Malappuram district. Compared to General and SC/ST category, OBC category were more involved in entrepreneurship in Malappuram district. Majority of the micro entrepreneurs in Malappuram district did not have higher educational qualification. Most of the families of the micro entrepreneurs in Kerala were nuclear in nature and the place of birth of the majority of the micro entrepreneurs was rural. The results revealed that there is a significant difference in the entrepreneurial skills of micro entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial activities helped them to develop entrepreneurial skill to a greater extent in Malappuram district of Kerala.
Keywords: Micro enterprise, entrepreneurial skill, Entrepreneurship, Friedman Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance.
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