Online Registration

ISO 9001:2015

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RESEARCH IN COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT & SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJARCMSS) [ Vol. 9 | No. 3 (II) | July - September, 2026 ]

Business Failure, Human Resource Management Practices, and Business Resilience: A Comparative Study of Literate and Illiterate Women Entrepreneurs in Chennai City

Ms. K.M. Indra & Dr. S.Jayakani

Women entrepreneurs make an important contribution to employment generation, household income, local economic development, and social empowerment. However, women operating micro and small enterprises may face business failure and distress due to inadequate financing, market uncertainty, competition, rising input costs, limited managerial capabilities, and difficulties in managing employees. Human resource management (HRM) practices may play an important role in helping small businesses survive and recover from such difficulties. At the same time, literacy may influence entrepreneurs' ability to access information, maintain business records, communicate with formal institutions, and use digital financial services. The present study examines the relationship between business failure, HRM practices, and business resilience among literate and illiterate women entrepreneurs in Chennai. The study adopts a comparative quantitative research design. A structured questionnaire is proposed for collecting primary data from women entrepreneurs operating micro and small enterprises in Chennai. To demonstrate the statistical procedure, an illustrative dataset of 300 respondents, consisting of 150 literate and 150 illiterate women entrepreneurs, is considered. Four major analyses are proposed: descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha reliability analysis, independent-samples comparison, and multiple regression analysis. The study examines whether the two groups differ in business failure or distress, HRM practices, and business resilience, and whether HRM practices significantly predict business resilience. It states that resilience should not be seen merely as an individual trait but rather as an outcome that is shaped by management practices, experience, networks, financial resources, and the capacity to adapt to changing business conditions. The research offers useful implications for entrepreneurship development programs, financial institutions, government agencies, self-help groups, and organizations that support women-owned enterprises in Chennai.

Indra, K. & Jayakani, S. (2026). Business Failure, Human Resource Management Practices, and Business Resilience: A Comparative Study of Literate and Illiterate Women Entrepreneurs in Chennai City. International Journal of Advanced Research in Commerce, Management &Amp; Social Science, 09(03(II)), 111–120. https://doi.org/10.62823/IJARCMSS/9.3(II).9315
  1. Cardon, M. S., & Stevens, C. E. (2004). Managing human resources in small organizations: What do we know? Human Resource Management Review, 14(3), 295–323.
  2. Brush, C. G., de Bruin, A., & Welter, F. (2009). A gender-aware framework for women's entrepreneurship. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 1(1), 8–24.
  3. Welter, F. (2011). Contextualizing entrepreneurship—conceptual challenges and ways forward. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 35(1), 165–184.
  4. Williams, T. A., Gruber, D. A., Sutcliffe, K. M., Shepherd, D. A., & Zhao, E. Y. (2017). Organizational response to adversity: Fusing crisis management and resilience research streams. Academy of Management Annals, 11(2), 733–769.
  5. OECD (2017), Enhancing the Contributions of SMEs in a Global and Digitalized Economy, OECD Publishing.
  6. The Annual Reports and publications on MSMEs and women entrepreneurship of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of the Government of India.

DOI:

Article DOI: 10.62823/IJARCMSS/9.3(II).9315

DOI URL: https://doi.org/10.62823/IJARCMSS/9.3(II).9315

Download Full Paper:

Download