Key success factors leading to business growth of micro level apparel manufactures in Gampaha district

Micro level apparel industry came into operations in Gampaha district of Sri Lanka after the open economy. It began with parallel to establishing free trade zones in Sri Lanka. Some of them are growing and climbing in industry scale ladder and others have to shut down their businesses even though there are several favorable factors for the growth. The growth and survivability of them has become questionable. Even though there is some research carried out to identify challenges and success factors faced by micro businesses in Sri Lanka there is no research that has been conducted to investigate key success factors of micro level apparel manufacturers particularly to Gampaha district. Hence there is a clear knowledge gap existing and filling this knowledge gap to a significant extent has become the problem of this study. The objectives of the study were to identify the key success factors leading to business growth of the micro level entrepreneurs in the apparel industry of Gampaha District, determine the relationship between the key success factors and their business growth, and provide recommendations to ensure the growth of them. In the conceptual model three factors were identified as key to success. They were management of financial issues, market orientation and entrepreneurial skills. Using a list of micro level apparel industry entrepreneurs, a sample of 100 were randomly selected to cover all 13 district secretariat divisions of the district. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The reliability and validity of the measurements were verified using Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis respectively. Descriptive statistics, regression and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze data.It was found that the micro level apparel entrepreneurs in the Gampaha District encountered problems in management of financial issues and market orientation. It was also found that management of financial issues significantly affected their business growth. To conclude it has been recommended to provide increased access to capital and financial management skills to the micro level entrepreneurs in order to improve their business growth. Further it suggested that programmes to be carried out to improve their market orientation which leads to their business growth