A Study on Impact of Entrepreneurial Characteristics between Service and Manufacturing Sector Entrepreneurs.

In the year 1991, the Government of India opened its doors to foreign goods and investment. Small-scale industry, particularly manufacturing that had basked in the safety of protection suddenly found itself exposed. Small-scale manufacturers who had run stand-alone businesses found it difficult to cope with increasing competition and their talents were put to test. During this period however, the service sector began to show promise. Industry sources attributed slowing down to technological obsolescence, financial and marketing constraints. Though there was recognition that managerial ability also needed upgradation, the struggle was to identify ways and means to encourage small-scale entrepreneurs to respond with briskness. The promise of the service sector revealed that the obvious limitations of business were only some of the causes for slowing down and that entrepreneurs who demonstrated the ability to structure resources, maintain flexible focus, develop temporal agility, show behavioural flexibility and influence others to commit resources could succeed. The present study captures the presence and intensity of 22 entrepreneurial characteristics across small-scale entrepreneurs in the manufacturing and the service sector to determine if there is a difference between the sectors. A sample of 300 entrepreneurs has been chosen from both sectors equally to gather data on the presence of characteristics. The study reveals that while perceptions are shared there are distinct differences in the presence and intensity of entrepreneurial characteristics across sectors, with the service sector showing higher intensity than manufacturing. This reveals the positive orientation of the service sector in the current scenario.