Participation of women in business associations: A case of small-scale tourism enterprises in Sri Lanka

Purpose: Effective business networks, experienced mentors, and access to financial and business knowledge are crucial for small-scale entrepreneurs to overcome challenges and barriers towards growth. Women entrepreneurs have limited access to information, training, credit, and networks compared to that of men entrepreneurs. Business Associations (BAs) are self-governing bodies designed to meet the needs of entrepreneurs in a specific local, national and regional socio-economic-cultural context. This study investigates firstly the potential of BAs to support and empower women entrepreneurs and the difficulties encountered by women in taking up leadership positions in BAs.

Methods: Three sub-sectors from among tourism enterprises in Hikkaduwa Urban Council, Galle District, in Sri Lanka were studied. A questionnaire survey among 390 respondents (195 women, 195 men) was conducted aiming to understand the profile of entrepreneurs. Employing 24 in-depth interviews (12 women, 12 men), a further investigation was taken to ascertain the underlying reasons of their decisions in business and family.

Findings: Determined to overcome the challenges, women entrepreneurs join BAs thus gaining access to business resources such as financial, information and connections. They become members of multiple BAs seeking tenacities to address difficulties they face as women entrepreneurs. However, women's participation is restricted to low-level positions while significant leadership positions in BAs tend to be dominated by male thereby obstructing a great deal of potential benefits yieldable by women.

Recommendations: We recommend that BAs promote women across the entire hierarchy of organization making BAs more relevant to women members who are in greater need of its services.

Research limitations/and future research: This study covers three sub-sectors of the tourism industry in one district in Sri Lanka wherein more research is demanded covering larger industries and geographies to develop nuanced theories about the potentially powerful roles that BAs could play to support women entrepreneurs. Business/trade associations hold enormous potential to support women entrepreneurs with critically important resources, i.e., mentoring and networking. Further research is required to further analyze how to promote women's leadership in BAs. Since the study was done before Covid-19 pandemic, gender impact of the pandemic could not be integrated.