Country institutional profile for women-led small businesses: evidence from a developing economy context

Less developed institutional environments affect the functioning of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs led by women have been significantly affected by the institutional environmental forces, especially in developing economies. Identifying the void in the literature that there is a lack of instrument for measuring the country institutional profile of women-led small businesses in the developing countries, present study aims to empirically validate an instrument in the Sri Lankan context. By utilizing a mixed methods approach, the study uses expert opinion surveys and focus group discussions for contextualizing the instrument, and deploys a questionnaire survey for collecting data from a sample of business students in validating the same. Providing a better understanding on the differences in the regulatory, cognitive and normative dimensions of the institutional environment of women-led small businesses, the findings show the possibility for developing economies to learn successful institutional practices from developed countries to further progress women-led small businesses.