The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Small Businesses’ Performance

Abstract

For each country entrepreneurial venture segment is considered as a major important factor of productivity, employment and economic growth. A developing country like Sri Lanka requires entrepreneurs to stimulate the economy. However, given the Sri Lankan context, most of Sri Lankan entrepreneurs’ failure is due to lack of entrepreneurship education. While the number of entrepreneurship education programs is growing, their impact is under researched and studies paint an unclear picture of the impact of entrepreneurship education. Therefore this research study aims to contribute to the understanding of the impact of entrepreneurship education on the firm’s performance. According to the literature, firm performance can be measured by using financial and non-financial factors. In this study, three measures were identified under the financial factors according to past literature. Namely profit growth, sales growth, and return on investment. Additionally non-financial performance is measured by using factors such as, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and owner satisfaction. The study also tests how this relationship varies with moderator variable, namely, gender. The study will be conducted in Sri Lankan context in Gampaha district. Proportionate random sampling technique will be used to select the sample of 150 small firms. A self-administered questionnaire will be used in this study as the research instrument. Both descriptive and inferential analytical tools will be used to analyze the data. The study will provide insight into the Sri Lankan context and it will contribute to understanding the importance of entrepreneurship education to owners of small firms.