نہ میرے دل پہ مرا کوئی اختیار رہا
کہ میری جان کے دشمن پہ یہ نثار رہا
وہ ہر جگہ پہ مرے نام سے ہی جانا گیا
یہ اور بات وہ اوروں کا غمگسار رہا
لیے ہیں رنج سدا ہی خلوص کے بدلے
کہ دل جلوں کا ہمیشہ یہ کاروبار رہا
تمام رات رہا ہم کلام تاروں سے
لباس جس کے مقدر کا تار تار رہا
وہ کوئی اور نہیں تھا وہ تیرا تائبؔ تھا
تمام عمر جسے تیرا انتظار رہا
It is widely recognized that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the major drivers of sustainable economic growth, sources of income generation and panacea for poverty reduction in developing countries. Unfortunately, they are faced with numerous challenges that threaten their existence and survival. This precarity of small entrepreneurial organizations in entrepreneurial ecosystem has prompted widespread attention by scholars and researchers. Hence, it is critical to take into consideration examining the performance of the enterprises. This study analyzed the effect of entrepreneurial orientation dimensions, personal and institutional characteristics on the performance of small and medium agro allied enterprises. Through the multistage sampling procedure, a total of 198 SMEs were selected for the study and data were collected with the aid of questionnaire. Data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results revealed that among the entrepreneurial orientation dimensions, only risking taking and innovativeness significantly and positively affected the performance of SMEs agro allied enterprises. Furthermore, findings showed that except for size of business which was negatively related to the growth of SMEs, educational level of entrepreneurs, managerial and business experience positively and significantly impacted on the performance of SMEs. Policies to encourage SMEs invest in risky investments and create new product and services should be pursued.
This study investigates the performance of the Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) at four-digit level and how agglomeration economies promote productivity at establishment level in the Punjab province of Pakistan utilizing the survey data for the years 1995-96, 2000-2001 and 2005-06 collected from the Punjab Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The research questions to be interrogated are: (1) how the average rate of technical efficiency and productivity in the LSMI changed during 1995-2005? (2) What are the key factors which determine the spatial agglomeration of LSMI? (3) What are the effects of spatial concentration or agglomeration of LSMI on its productivity at establishment level? Are establishments at an advantage when they are spatially agglomerated in contrast when they are spatially dispersed? And (4) which industrial policy is beneficial through which spatial agglomeration may enhance the productivity of LSMI? Should the industrial policy be biased in favour of specialization (localisation) or in favour of diversification (urbanisation) to enhance the performance of the manufacturing sector of the Punjab province? The study on the spatial agglomeration of the manufacturing sector and its impact on the establishments‟ productivity in the Punjab province provide important results and policy implications for the planning and development of the industrial sector of the province. A careful reading of literature on the economy of Pakistan reflects that specific issue of agglomeration (urbanisation and localisation) effects on productivity of LSMI has been overlooked in Pakistan. In this study, the performance of LSMI in terms of productivity and efficiency is determined by using Malmaquist productivity index that is non-parametric approach. It is further decomposed into technical change, efficiency change and scale efficiency change. Moreover, the bootstrapping methodology is applied to get the confidence intervals for the mean values of Malmquist productivity indices to perform statistical inferences. The study utilizes Ellison and Glaeser (EG) index to investigate the pattern of spatial agglomeration of LSMI and finds that its pattern is quite dissimilar in contrast with developed countries. This study further investigates the sources of spatial agglomeration of manufacturing sector by taking EG index as explained variable and Mashalian factors (knowledge spillovers, input sharing and labour pooling) as explanatory variables along with control variables (natural advantages, transportation cost and scale economies). The results suggest that knowledge spillovers, labour pooling and scale economies are positive and statistically significant determinants of industrial agglomeration. Moreover, transportation cost is significant and has inverse relation with EG index, which implies that industries in Punjab province dot not prefer to concentrate in an urban setup where the per unit transportation cost is high. This study also examines whether spatial agglomeration of LSMI facilitates establishments to enhance their productivity in the Punjab province of Pakistan by utilizing production function framework. The production function estimated individually for the seven groups of LSMI, each group contains four-digit manufacturing establishments i.e (1) Traditional, (2) Textile and Leather Products, (3) Heavy, (4) High-Tech, (5) Transportation or Auto-Parts, (6) Machinery and (7) Sports and Surgical Instruments. The results of production function suggest that the role of spatially agglomerated LSMI is vital in enhancing the productivity at establishment level. In general, the impact of localisation (specialization) is positive and stronger than urbanisation (diversification) which implies that locating manufacturing establishments in a particular district leads to enhance the productivity of establishments. Therefore, government policy should be biased to promote localisation.