IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/lje/journl/v19y2014ispp135-176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Barriers to the Growth of Small Firms in Pakistan: A Qualitative Assessment of Selected Light Engineering Industries

Author

Listed:
  • Nazish Afraz

    (Adjunct Faculty, Department of Economics, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan.)

  • Syed Turab Hussain

    (Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan.)

  • Usman Khan

    (Adjunct Faculty, Department of Economics, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan.)

Abstract

This article identifies constraints and barriers to growth for small firms in Pakistan, a survey of the existing literature and through in-depth interviews with a sub-sample of firms in two important SME sectors, that is electrical fans and sporting goods. Policy recommendations for the SME sector include addressing problems in contract enforcement (such through alternative dispute settlement mechanisms), promoting R & D through linkages with academia locally and research institutions globally, simplifying of the tax regime to encourage transparency, resolving the energy crisis and rationalize power tariffs, increasing the availability of credit to SMEs (allowing alternative forms of collateral). In addition, more detailed recommendations specific to the fan and sporting goods sectors are also offered.

Suggested Citation

  • Nazish Afraz & Syed Turab Hussain & Usman Khan, 2014. "Barriers to the Growth of Small Firms in Pakistan: A Qualitative Assessment of Selected Light Engineering Industries," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 19(Special E), pages 135-176, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:lje:journl:v:19:y:2014:i:sp:p:135-176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://121.52.153.179/JOURNAL/Volume%2019,%20SE/07%20Turab%20Hussain%20Final.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paolo Angelini & Andrea Generale, 2008. "On the Evolution of Firm Size Distributions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 426-438, March.
    2. Syed Turab Hussain & Usman Khan & Kashif Zaheer Malik & Adeel Faheem, 2012. "Constraints Faced by Industry in Punjab, Pakistan," Working Papers id:5090, eSocialSciences.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Raheela Maula-Bakhsh, Abdul Raziq, 2018. "Relationship between Servant Leadership and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Manufacturing and Services based SMEs in Pakistan," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 5(1), pages 62-85, March.
    2. Abdul Raziq, Retha Wiesner, 2016. "High Performance Management Practices and Sustainability of SMEs. Evidence from Manufacturing and Services-based Industries in Pakistan," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 3(2), pages 83-107, October.
    3. Idrees Khawaja & Nasir Iqbal, 2019. "Determinants of Expansion of Micro and Small Firms and State of Entrepreneurship in Pakistan," PIDE-Working Papers 2019:160, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    4. Uzma Haroon & Mohd Noor Mohd Shariff & Mohd Sufli Yusof, 2019. "Exploring the Relationship Between Innovation Capability, Total Quality Management and SMEs Performance in Electric Fan Industry of Pakistan: Moderating Effect of Relational Learning," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 353-359, May.
    5. Theresa Chaudhry & Zunia Tirmazee & Umair Ayaz, 2023. "Experimental Evidence on Group-based Attendance Bonuses in Team Production," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 18(1), pages 90-110, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Song Zhang & Liang Han & Konstantinos Kallias & Antonios Kallias, 2021. "The value of in-person banking: evidence from U.S. small businesses," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1393-1435, November.
    2. Torsten Heinrich & Jangho Yang & Shuanping Dai, 2020. "Growth, development, and structural change at the firm-level: The example of the PR China," Papers 2012.14503, arXiv.org.
    3. Segarra, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes, 2012. "An appraisal of firm size distribution: Does sample size matter?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 314-328.
    4. Silvia Magri, 2014. "Does issuing equity help R&D activity? Evidence from unlisted Italian high-tech manufacturing firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(8), pages 825-854, November.
    5. Quader, Syed Manzur, 2017. "Differential effect of liquidity constraints on firm growth," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 20-29.
    6. repec:dgr:rugggd:gd-120 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Coad, Alex & Segarra, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes, 2013. "Like milk or wine: Does firm performance improve with age?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 173-189.
    8. Angelo Secchi & Federico Tamagni & Chiara Tomasi, 2016. "Financial constraints and firm exports: accounting for heterogeneity, self-selection, and endogeneity," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(5), pages 813-827.
    9. Giuseppe Espa & Danila Filipponi & Diego Giuliani & Davide Piacentino, 2015. "Effetti spaziali o settoriali? La crescita della dimensione media d?impresa in Italia," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(1), pages 41-65.
    10. Segarra Blasco, Agustí, 1958- & Teruel, Mercedes, 2010. "Are small firms more sensitive to financial variables?," Working Papers 2072/151623, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    11. Paulo Bastos & Daniel A. Dias & Olga A. Timoshenko, 2018. "Learning, prices and firm dynamics," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 1257-1311, November.
    12. Bürker, Matthias & Franco, Chiara & Minerva, G. Alfredo, 2013. "Foreign ownership, firm performance, and the geography of civic capital," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 964-984.
    13. Murat ATAN & Emre BOZDAĞ, 2011. "Avrupa Karbonatlı İçecekler Piyasasında Firma Büyüklüğü Ve Büyüklük Genişleme Oranı İlişkisi," Ekonomik Yaklasim, Ekonomik Yaklasim Association, vol. 22(80), pages 19-38.
    14. Pierluigi Murro & Valentina Peruzzi, 2022. "Relationship lending and the use of trade credit: the role of relational capital and private information," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 327-360, June.
    15. Jože Damijan & Črt Kostevc & Sašo Polanec, 2015. "Access to finance, exporting and a non-monotonic firm expansion," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 131-155, February.
    16. Degner, Harald, 2010. "Windows of technological opportunity: do technological booms influence the relationship between firm size and innovativeness?," FZID Discussion Papers 15-2010, University of Hohenheim, Center for Research on Innovation and Services (FZID).
    17. Alex Coad & Julian S. Frankish & Albert N. Link, 2020. "The Economic Contribution of a Cohort of New Firms Over Time," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 57(3), pages 519-536, November.
    18. Chen, J. & Elliott, M. & Koh, A., 2020. "Capability Accumulation and Conglomeratization in the Information Age," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2069, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    19. Marek, Philipp & Stein, Ingrid, 2022. "Basel III and SME bank finance in Germany," Discussion Papers 37/2022, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    20. Fredrik Andersson & Elizabeth E. Davis & Matthew L. Freedman & Julia I. Lane & Brian P. Mccall & Kristin Sandusky, 2012. "Decomposing the Sources of Earnings Inequality: Assessing the Role of Reallocation," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 779-810, October.
    21. Shutao Cao & Danny Leung, 2016. "Financial Constraint and Productivity: Evidence from Canadian SMEs," Staff Working Papers 16-44, Bank of Canada.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pakistan; SMEs; light engineering; constraints; electrical fans; sporting goods.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lje:journl:v:19:y:2014:i:sp:p:135-176. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shahid Salahuddin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsecopk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.