NSU Research Contributions

Title : Women Small and Medium Enterprise Entrepreneurs, Business Life Cycle, and Sustainable Development Goal 4.4: Bangladesh Perspective

Authors : Faisal Ibne Wali,Khan Muhammad Saqiful Alam,Muhammad Maruf Ibne Wali, Samanta Farahnaz

Abstract : This study identified challenges faced by women small and medium enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs in different stages of their business life cycle (BLC). Bangladesh is one of the signatories of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and women entrepreneurship development is one of the key goals. To achieve SDG 4.4, Bangladesh needs to ensure the growth of women entrepreneurship in SMEs sector through amiable investment-friendly policy. A focused group discussions with prominent and start-up women entrepreneurs had identified outstanding concerns in four generic areas: Marketing, quality, finance, and production. A total of 133 women entrepreneurs were selected randomly for the quantitative survey. The research found that challenges related to marketing and quality are consistently positively related in different stages of BLC. Women SMEs are struggling more in their growth and maturity stage to ensure marketing and quality. Considering optimal production level and decision-making process, they do not invest in new machineries and marketing campaigns as it is not economically viable despite the fact that they have better access to finance at this stage. Finally, the paper covered a set of actions that can be taken for further research to carry out the actual problems of women SMEs in Bangladesh.

Journal : Australasian Journal of Business, Social Science and Information Technology	Volume : 5	Year : 2019	Issue : 1
Pages : 36-43	City :	Edition :	Editors :
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