INTRODUCTION

Small and medium enterprises are those enterprises that work on small level and
the number of employees does not exceed than 250 whereas the level of
investment is 250 million (SMEDA).Different standards are set for the
classification of SMEs. In some places classification is done on the basis of
number of workers e.g. in European Union, enterprises which employee up to 250
labors are considered as SMEs, according to the US firms the number of
employees is up to 500, where as in some countries financial possessions are set
as criteria. In Pakistan it is up to 250 million. However, there are three limitations
which are generally accepted for defining SMEs in most countries. It includes the
number of workers employees, enterprise level of capital investment and volume
of production.

In Pakistan different institutions have different criteria’s for defining SMEs.

 According to the SME bank, a small enterprise should have less than total
asset of Rs. 20 million and a medium industry should have entire asset of less
than Rs. 100 million.
 Federal bureau of Statistics (FBS) define SMEs with the number of
employees. Enterprise which employee less than 10 workers is considered as
SMEs.
 Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) defines SMEs with respect of
level of investment which is 20 million apart from land and building.
 State Bank defines SMEs on the basis of employees and total possessions
apart from land and building, which does not employee more than 250
persons in manufacturing sector and 50 persons in trade and services sector.
 The Government of Pakistan defines SMEs with the employment size which
is up to 250 employees, the paid up size of the enterprise should be 250
Million and the annual sales should be Rs. 250 million.

According to Shane and Venkataraman 2000 Entrepreneurship is a process of

combining all factors of production, bring innovations and have a risk taking
behavior. They describe entrepreneurship as the examination of how, by whom
and with what effects chances to generate upcoming commodities are created,
evaluated and exploited. The new definition of entrepreneurship depends to a
great extent on Shane and Venkatarman’s 2000 definition of entrepreneurship.

According to the definition, entrepreneurship (1) emphasize on opportunities, (2)

allows but does not require the creation of new enterprises, (3) permits for
corporate organization, and (4) focuses on the entrepreneurial activity across state
boundaries.

The Small and Medium Enterprises are divided into two categories,
manufacturing sector and service/trade sector. The enterprises mainly involved in
the production of any product are known as manufacturing enterprises and service
enterprises engaged in providing different services.

SMEs are considered as a base for industrial development of any country. SMEs
contribute effectively to the economies both to the developing and developed
economy due to which they are considered as backbone of any economy. SMEs
have a major contribution in the economic growth of any nation especially in
developing countries. SMEs have the ability to provide living to a large number of
populations in developing countries. It helps to decrease the poverty by increasing
the productivity growth.

The success of SMEs greatly depends on human enterprises in the developing

world. Pakistan is the 6th largest populated country which is gifted with natural
resources, favorable climatic conditions and abundant human resources in term of
skilled and unskilled labor. Unfortunately, Pakistan is a capital limited country,
the main obstacle in the proper utilization of these resources in application of the
capital intensive industrialization. The large enterprises are mostly located in
urban areas despite of this; SMEs are labor intensive and are located in rural areas.
They use raw material, create job opportunities and help in income generating
activities due to which they provide jobs to poor people. As SMEs are playing a
very significant role in the economic development of Pakistan, due to which the
economy of Pakistan is largely based on SMEs like other developing countries.
According to the Economic Survey (2009-10), SMEs are declared very essential
for the economic growth of Pakistan.
 LITERATURE REVIEW

Oluyemisi (2014) conducted a study to find out the effect of small and medium
enterprises financing on the economic progress on Nigeria. According to the
author, the role of small and medium size industries is very significant to
economic development of a country. The contributions of SMEs as well as
enhanced effect in following macroeconomic objective resulting thein providing
job opportunities, improve income distribution and the upgradation in
technologies, makes the survival most expected. SMEs also contribute in the area
of accelerating rural development progress of entrepreneurs, utilization of local
reserves, connections with larger enterprises, providing of chance for
empowerment, and spread of investments. To find out the affect, secondary data
is collected from central bank of Nigeria and World Bank Data Base. The data is
then analyzed with the help of coefficient correlation and regression analysis.
Correlation indicates a negative relationship between financing and GDP and a
negative relation between SME financing and unemployment. Whereas regression
analysis shows negative relationship between SME financing and GDP and a
positive relationship between SME financing and unemployment. The author
suggested increasing the financing to SME to reduce unemployment.

According to Lutkenhorst, W. (2008) Small and medium enterprises have a

significant contribution in the economic development of a country. A dynamic
role is played by micro, small and medium enterprises which, makes up for over
90% of enterprises in the world and account for 50-60% of employment – in
particular in the developing world. The proper definition of SMEs has been the
issue of extensive discussion. It differs from country to country, depending on the
purpose for which the definition is used. UNIDO refers SMEs in these three
categories. SMEs tend to employ more labor-intensive production processes than
large enterprises. Accordingly, they contribute significantly to the provision of
productive employment opportunities, the generation of income and ultimately,
the reduction of poverty. SME is a key to the transition from agriculture-led to
industrial economies as they provide simple opportunities for value-adding
processing activities which can generate sustainable livelihoods. In this context,
the predominant role of women is of particular importance. SMEs are a seedbed
for entrepreneurship development, innovation and risk-taking behavior and
provide the foundation for long-term growth dynamics and the transition towards
larger enterprise.

According to TulusTuhiTambulus (2011) SMEs are considered essential for

Indonesian economy. According to the 2006 survey, here are 49 million SMEs
working in Indonesia. Providing employment to 96.2 percent of total workers.
SMEs and particularly SEs are mainly located in rural areas, which are helpful in
developing the abilities of villagers, especially females, as entrepreneurs.
Indonesia constitute majority of SMEs among all South East Asian countries. The
major numbers of SMEs are found in agriculture sector. The second important
sector is trade, hotel, and restaurant whereas the third main is manufacturing. In
the former sector, the enterprises are involved mostly in typical, out-of-date
activities such as production of wood products, furniture, textiles, garments,
footwear, food, and beverages. The main aim of the study is to find out the
importance of networks for the development of SME clusters, and to identify the
types of clusters where networks are well developed. Many factors like well-
developed networks, traders, trading houses and foreign tourists are the important
factors to increase export activities which has played more supportive role than
the Government support.

Singh and Raina (2013) conducted a study about women entrepreneurs working in
micro, small and medium enterprises in India. The main objective of the study is
to know about the status of these women. According to the authors, The SME
sector in India has a very effective role in the development of India. This sector is
the second largest source of employment after agriculture having 40% of
agriculture production, 95% of the industrial units, 34% of exports earnings and
having manufacturing over 6000 products. These produces food items, different
kinds of drinks, textile, wood products, spare parts, jewelry, and goods produced
from jute and tobacco. Indian society is male dominated society where women are
under the control of male members of the family. The financial institutions do not
provide financial assets on easy terms and conditions. According to the report by
the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) the loan
repayment rates for females are higher than men. The families are not supportive
due to which women pay more attention to their family responsibilities. More over
women are not properly skilled and they have low level of risk taking ability. The
authors have suggested improving the working ability of women for which it is
needed to provide child care centers. To provide them proper platform t solve their
issues and to develop proper networks.

According to bygrave (1989) Women entrepreneurs are those who have started
businesses and have been actively involved in managing it; own at least 50% of
the firm, and have been in practice for one year or longer.

According to Okafor and Mordi (2010) the importance of small and medium
enterprise economy is unremarkable. African enterprises are considered as
pioneers of development as they have managed to survive under unfavorable
conditions. Because of this govt.is giving special attention to small and medium
enterprises on the policy agenda for African development. The survival of these
entrepreneurs is considered as miracle of growth because of which they are
accepted as agents of change and growth but it is obvious that they cannot do it
alone. It is needed to study the successful cases and apply these lessons to support
and protect other enterprises Nigeria is an African country where women
constitute more than 50% of population out of which only 35% of women are
involved in entrepreneurship. They are mainly engaged in SMEs because they
have the flexibility and innovativeness that are the critical business issues of
women. Both primary and secondary data is used. For this purpose questionnaire
was designed and was filled from 120 women entrepreneurs. Correlation analysis
was used for the interpretation of the data. The results show that the
entrepreneurial competiveness can be increase with support services. The policy
of the government related to the environmental factor has an inverse relationship
with women entrepreneurs. It is needed to study the successful cases and apply
these lessons to support and protect other enterprises. Changes in the family
structure brought women into the Nigerian economy and business world. To
promote women entrepreneurship, it is needed to focus upon the issues that
confine their activities and to concentrate on the psychological, economic and
environmental issues.
According to Sultan Tahir et al; (2015) Women’s economic activities, particularly
in self-employment, empower them economically and enable them overall to
contribute more to the development of their country. Recent statistics confirm that
women’s economic activities play a crucial role in the growth of many of the
world economies

TulusTambunan (2009) conducted a study to know about the constraints face by

women entrepreneurs in Asian developing countries. According to the author, the
development of entrepreneurship together with human skills upgradation has
become two crucial factors for sustainable economic and social development and
for world leadership in all aspects of the modern state. Recently, entrepreneurship
development has been generally recognized as an important impulse factor for the
sustainable economic development in Indonesia. The methodology of this study is
based on the previous literatures and secondary data is taken from international
labor Organization ILO and covers the south Asian countries. The findings shows
that SMEs have a very significant role in this region as they form 95% of all
enterprises But the representation of women is very low which can be improved
by upgrading level of education, providing them financial facilities and by
removing socio-cultural constraints. The women in this region are mainly forced
entrepreneurs. They work just to increase their family incomes. This situation can
be improved by providing them proper education and employment opportunities.

Muhammad Azam Roomi (2009) has tried to highlight the factors faced by the
women in east England in the growth process of these women. According to one
of the studies conducted by the UK Small Business Service, women business
owners contribute £50-70 billion in gross value added to the UK economy each
year. To conduct the study, online questionnaire was designed which was
analyzed with the help of SPSS. This shows that women main focus is on local
business rendering services and using low technology. Women who are growth
oriented usually face problems like limited capital and information and technology
issues. Recognizing this value and its importance, many governments in the world
are paying at least some attention in order to create an environment conducive for
the establishment of women-owned enterprises.
CONCLUSION

The results indicates that the shortage of finance facility, hurdles in locomotion,
education level of women entrepreneurs, size of the family, gender inequality and
suitable marketing of product have significant effect on the performance of
women entrepreneurs in SMEs. Variables included in the model are essential.
Lack of finance facility had a strong effect the performance of women
entrepreneurs. The education level of household head had a positive link. The
problem in mobility shows strong significance and it for most effect their
performance. The education level of women entrepreneurs had a positive link with
their performance. It is found that of household size appeared as significant
variable with the positive sign shows that increase in the female participation in
income increases the household income, while less income is generated when
female do not contribute in family income. Gender discrimination is another very
important variable which is significant. Women entrepreneurs find problems in
marketing of a product; the model shows that it had a significant impact and
affects their performance.

The last variable i.e. Social Behavior shows that more female's cooperation in
income of households will persuade more females and their relative to give them
any chance to confirmation their abilities in their field of aptitude.
RECOMMENDATIONS

Following are the recommendation proposed for the study

1. Training assumes essential for the development of social orders and just
educated females can have the understanding of their rights and can
compete males.
2. Proper finance institutions should be developed to help women
entrepreneurs. Proper policies should be developed for these institutions to
work effectively and they should provide this facility on easy terms and
conditions. Banks should reduce the rate of interest on which the provide
loan to women entrepreneurs.
3. Proper platform should be setup on the permanent bases where they can
display their products and can sit together to sort out their issues and
problems.
4. The typical mindset of people should be changed regarding the position
and status should be changed with the help of media.
5. Peshawar social order is mainly a Muslim dominating order, due to which
proper aim and strategy declaration in the light of Islamic values is
essential from the management for support of females.
6. The productive abilities and talents can be improved by providing proper
educational facilities. Therefore much attention should be given towards
their education.