Factors influencing growth of micro entrepreneurship in the hospitality industry: An empirical study in India

Dhanabagiyam, S. et al. Article Factors influencing growth of micro entrepreneurship in the hospitality industry: An empirical study in India Cogent Business & Management Provided in Cooperation with: Taylor & Francis Group Suggested Citation: Dhanabagiyam, S. et al. (2024) : Factors influencing growth of micro entrepreneurship in the hospitality industry: An empirical study in India, Cogent Business & Management, ISSN 2331-1975, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 1-14, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/325891 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Cogent Business & Management ISSN: 2331-1975 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/oabm20 Factors influencing growth of micro entrepreneurship in the hospitality industry: An empirical study in India S. Dhanabagiyam, M. Blessy Doe, M. Thamizhselvi, Mohammad Irfan, Sanjeev Kumar Thalari & P.C. Libeesh To cite this article: S. Dhanabagiyam, M. Blessy Doe, M. Thamizhselvi, Mohammad Irfan, Sanjeev Kumar Thalari & P.C. Libeesh (2024) Factors influencing growth of micro entrepreneurship in the hospitality industry: An empirical study in India, Cogent Business & Management, 11:1, 2285260, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. View supplementary material Published online: 17 Jan 2024. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 2797 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 5 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=oabm20 MANAGEMENT | RESEARCH ARTICLE Factors influencing growth of micro entrepreneurship in the hospitality industry: An empirical study in India S. Dhanabagiyam 1 *, M. Blessy Doe 2 , M. Thamizhselvi 3 , Mohammad Irfan 1 , Sanjeev Kumar Thalari 4 and P.C. Libeesh 1 Abstract: Entrepreneurship is the process of economic growth, development, creation, and poverty reduction while all Sustainable Development Goals (1), integrated towards No Poverty, is the sync that make the path in the needle for major livelihood. This article examines the internal and external factors that influence the growth of micro entrepreneurship in the hospitality industry. Internal factors include motives and issues and challenges of entrepreneurs and the external factors include socio-economic factors and financial factors related to hotel industry. A critical examination with few literature suggests to proceed further to understand the motives and challenges faced by the small hospitality business entrepreneurs along with socio-economic factors. As a result of the assessment of literature, identification of gaps in various sectors and as the world has recently been expanded to include socio-economic and financial kinds of entrepreneurial action, the researchers have narrowed the search to evaluate motivations and business obstacles faced by small business entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry. Considering some quantitative approach among different small hospitality business entrepreneurs, opinion towards the attributes like motivation factor, issues and challenges, growth and development of S. Dhanabagiyam ABOUT THE AUTHOR S. Dhanabagiyam holds a Doctoral degree in Management, with MBA., MBA (T&H). She is Specialized in Human Resource, Organizational Behavior, Strategic Human Resources, Marketing. Tourism and Hospitality Sector. She is a vibrant, enthusiastic professional with nearly 13 years of Academic, Research and Industry experience in various institution approved by AICTE/UGC. Ample experience in academic, research, also curriculum design in Management, Tourism and Travel Management courses. Author for book “Multirater Feedback for Succession Planning: A Study on Banking Sector”, and contribute regularly in articles for Journals. She is a proven researcher on various aspects of Management especially Human Resource, Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality Journals. She has published many articles in international and national journals few of the articles in UGC Care List, WOS, Scopus and reputed Journals. She is serving as Editorial Member and Reviewer for Elsevier and Reputed Journals. Also, she has attended Refresher Courses/STTP/FDP/Workshop organized by MHRD, HRDC, UGC, AICTE, ATAL, etc., She has organized various national seminar, workshop, conferences, industrial visits, internship, OBT. FDP for Students, Researcher and Faculty Members. She is also in member Board of Studies and member in various professional bodies like IAAC Society, ITHC. She also visited various countries like Singapore and Malaysia. She currently contributes her active participation academics, guiding doctoral scholars and various administrative activities like NAAC, IQAC, Community Social Service activities, organizing conference/seminar and workshops, and she received notable awards like Young Faculty and Researcher award by NFED, Best Women Faculty award. Dhanabagiyam et al., Cogent Business & Management (2024), 11: 2285260 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 Page 1 of 14 Received: 14 September 2022 Accepted: 15 November 2023 *Corresponding author: S. Dhanabagiyam, NSB Academy – Business School, Bengaluru, India E-mail: dhanabagiyamram1@gmail. com Reviewing editor: Trevor Wilmshurst, Accounting and Corporate Governance, University of Tasmania - Launceston Campus, Australia Additional information is available at the end of the article © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. entrepreneurs were collected from a sample of 250 respondents from Coimbatore district. To gauge the same, the research proposed a model that assess the influence of internal and external factors on the growth of small business operators. Results indicate that there exist some influence among few of the internal and external factors on progress of the entrepreneurs based on the motivation they undergo to overcome the challenges and keep them engaged in the hospitality sector. Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Economics; Industry & Industrial Studies; Education – Social Sciences; Hospitality; Tourism Keywords: motivation; issues and challenges; socio-economic factor; financial factor 1. Introduction Most of the developments in the hospitality sector for the past two decades were highly significant for the growth of small businesses. Many philanthropist and decision makers of this particular sector want to identify the hindrances and revamp with innovation and growth. Many researchers, however, extended beyond the boundaries to understand the economic geography. There are other uncertainties stimulated through theoretical enquiry that required to reveal how small businesses “worked” and how they articulated with the economies of destinations. Research has, however, extended across the boundaries of economic geography. Most intellectual effort needs to be indulged with the motives, challenges and socio-economic attributes. This research provides a comprehensive review to shape the gaps that have taken place for the last few decades; there are some challenges identified as the above-mentioned attributes and these attributes are analysed with various structured literatures. Entrepreneurship is the engine that propels each successful sector or company forward. There are some sectors that are rapidly evolving like hospitality, tourism and leisure sector worldwide (Banerjee, 2011). Thomas (2000) mentioned that tourism always offers opportunities to start up various types of its associated segments, especially into small or microbusiness as a sole proprietor and in partnership. Entrepreneurship is designed to develop a greater considerate of the procedure and background for entrepreneurship as well as to provide key concepts that enable to become more entrepreneurial themselves (Reijonen, 2007). “An entrepreneur is a person who organises, manages, and accepts the risks of a business or venture,” according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The term entrepreneurship has many different meanings in different industries and fields, leading to misunderstanding in both the corporate and academic worlds (Mohanty, 1992). Entrepreneurship is “the desire, motivation, and abilities required to establish and operate a successful firm” (Hansen, 2011), which point out that the concept of entrepreneurship differs depending on how opportunity is defined. A clear-cut and controversy-free definition is no where within grasp (Sikalieh, 2010). Many people conflate entrepreneurship with innovation; yet, there is a significant distinction between the two terms. Morrison has noticed that entrepreneurs in the tourist and hospitality industries are primarily motivated by a desire to live a specific social lifestyle, with economic motivations playing a secondary role. This study explains hospitality and tourism firms as at least a minimum of ten persons are recruited to execute the plans in this particular sector. There are many start-ups inclined towards this business for earning more profit or security (Ateljevic, 2000). Thomas et al. (2011) explained about the entrepreneurial motivation based on their lifestyle and business orientation. The type of entrepreneurial motivation in tourism and hospitality has been an important topic in the literature, which is normally classified as either business oriented or lifestyle oriented. Lifestyle entrepreneurs create a business to alter their business and lifestyle. They are ignited with full of aspiration for exploration and start some business away from their home country, to generate lifestyle benefits and quality of life (Sveinsdóttir, 2020). Dhanabagiyam et al., Cogent Business & Management (2024), 11: 2285260 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 Page 2 of 14 The development of entrepreneurship is important and crucial for the economic growth and well-being of individuals of an area or a country. Since there is a dearth of government and private jobs globally, which is more so in the developing world, people consider entrepreneurship as a rewarding career option (Shubhawita, 2006). The word hospitality means “friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guest”. According to Singh & Onahring (2019), hospitality industry consists of all types of accommodation and catering outlets like hotels, lodges, motels, boatels, restaurant, bakery, kiosk, milk bar, dhabas, night club, discotheque, take away, banquet, fast food service, etc. The hotels and catering houses constitute the most important segment at the destination. Therefore, the hospitality industry is measured as the centre pillar of the tourism industry. An adequate development of hotel and catering houses with the original scenery of a destination, sporting and entertaining facilities will not suffice to sustain a good volume of tourist trade. It is a fact that tourism industry encourages the hospitality sector to grow and vice-versa (OECD, 2020). Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft Corporation, in one of his interview, remarked that in the coming years, service sector (hospitality industry is a part of service sector) would be the largest industry in the world. People are drawn to entrepreneurship for the sole purpose of founding a firm. These are some of them: Entrepreneurs are in charge of their own destiny. They are the ones who make the decisions. They get to select who they do business with and what kind of work they do. They select how long they will work, how much they will be paid, and whether or not they will take holidays. Working for someone else has a lower chance of attaining big financial benefits than entrepreneurship. It allows one to be a part of the entire business process, from concept to design and development, from sales to business operations and customer service. It comes with the dignity of being in command. Entrepreneurship provides people with the opportunity to make a difference. Most new entrepreneurs make a choice decision to pursue entrepreneurship after assisting local budget careers where they dwell. The inn industry is in charge of a wide range of guest accommodations. To be sure, the lodging industry is associated with opulent hotels and resorts, but it also recalls short-term accommodations such as guesthouses, motels, hotels, and inns (Hotel Review and Survey Committee, 1967). The fundamental purpose of inns is to provide food, beverages, services, and a safe haven for visitors while they are away from home. Hotel management entails overseeing everything relating to the hotel sector. If one wants to get into this industry, one will need to learn about all aspects of hotel management, including marketing, hotel administration, catering management, cleaning, and accounting (Jreat, 2004). The major purpose of studying the ins and outs of hotel management is to properly operate a hotel while also managing other elements of the business. Inn the board is a highly concentrated action that needs both knowledge and expertise. As an innkeeper, one should increase the adequacy of the inn’s offices and assets to modify limits and requests (Kadam, 2013). One should also be aware of the growing number of on-line travel agencies, which have given this business a new dimension. The executives’ objective of increasing inn revenue is to accept innovative tactics with the final goal of increasing customer loyalty. While hotel promotion and revenue management might be puzzling, there are certain low-cost and effective tactics one can employ in their inn (Gerstlberger, 2021). In this backdrop, the study aims to identify the motives and business challenges by entrepreneurs of the hospitality industry. For long years, nearly around fifteen years, Street Business School (SBS) majorly empowered nearly thousands of women to start their small scale business to triple their income. Many of the women earn their pocket money better by their small business like handicrafts, dairy, cookery and others. Also, they support their family and educate their children, which increases the sustainable communities. Dhanabagiyam et al., Cogent Business & Management (2024), 11: 2285260 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 Page 3 of 14 2. Review of literature 2.1. Internal factors (motives, issues and challenges) According to Vincent Charles (2013), a desire for independence, monetary incentive, lack of employment or career possibilities, and a need for work–family balance are among the main pull and push motives for becoming an entrepreneur. Popular motives for starting a business include a desire for independence and financial gain, time flexibility, balancing job duties and earning potential, and family responsibilities (Waltower, 2022), and identify motivators such as a desire for self-actualization or independence, more income, or the ability to be one’s own boss (Sappleton, 2009). Komppula (2007) discovered various performance drivers in small tourist enterprises through their research, including underlining the significance of motivation and challenges for customer orientation, excellent leadership abilities, internal marketing, and a solid firm and product reputation. Although there are numerous reasons for company failure, finance, demand forecasting, management, and marketing strategy and planning are among the most typical challenges with small businesses, particularly those under three years old. Managerial incapability, quality management failure, and insufficient resources are all examples of failure tied to internal and external issues like socio-economic attributes (Morrison, 2004). In this regard, several of these failures have a significant link to the motivation and challenges of entrepreneurial leadership (Peters, 2008). Many hospitality sectors in Canada say that a lack of tourist marketing and support from the government and financial institutions hampers their company growth (Chen, 2019), potential regions based on the factors, namely the count of hotels, number of rooms and number of beds in the first part; and in the second part, tourist information centers, and travel agents and availability of computerized system of reservation of the seats in the buses. The main findings in the first part are in terms of hotel rooms and beds. Manali has emerged as intensively very significant tourist potential place (TPP); in the second part, there are four tourist potential regions, namely, Kullu Manali, Simla, Dharamsala-Palampar, and Kangra. Out of these, Manali occupies the first place as its TPP has attained a very significant attraction of a high degree and consequently, it has placed itself over the world tourist map. Domestic travellers mostly use the Indian lodging industry, whereas wealthy tourists use the luxury hotel sector. Only a few premium hotels, he claims, offer sophisticated entertainment facilities, while others lack any type of family entertainment (Jreat, 2004). Currently, the hospitality sector faces a lot of challenges and motivation with the present tax system, because basic infrastructure is neglected. The entrepreneurs are demotivated, and finally basic inputs are suggested like (i) the government can give stronger financial incentives and aid to businesses and (ii) the rooms sold in the hotel are to be calculated on par with commodities sold (Stabler & Goodall, 1997). 2.2. External factor (social, economic and strategies) (Salleh Mohd Radzi, 2015) Many Tourism Development Corporation’s financial performances are calculated with financial ratios like fixed assets ratio, working capital ratio, net capital employed ratio, net worth ratio, direct cost ratio, gross profit ratio, interest ratio, return on investment ratio, operating profit ratio, gross profit ratio, and salary to sales ratio to overall tourism development corporation. Although many tourism development corporations across countries use financial ratio calculation (Gerstlberger, 2021), the sector has been attributed to a variety of factors. She researched and discussed growth patterns using percentages, graphs, index numbers, and linear and exponential growth trends. She has also looked at the present spatial organisation, focusing on room–bed capacity. Second, she examined the nature and characteristics of a partial transition that occurred over the previous decade and predicted the industry’s future structure. She has also made an analysis of concentration of hotel industry by using Index, Entropy index and Linda Index. She has also studied potential competition and tariff structure in the industry by using regression analysis. Further, by applying Gronroos Model, she has studied the quality of hotel services. She concludes that the growth of higher spending hotels is more impressive, and the hotels are concentrated in only six cities. Due to the scarcity of data, the study could not pursue other issues like factor productivity, profitability, break-even point, capital:output ratio, quality output ratio, etc. (Mohanty, 1992). The biggest challenge before the private companies is that they have to reconcile Dhanabagiyam et al., Cogent Business & Management (2024), 11: 2285260 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 Page 4 of 14 their expansion plans with futurist plans of 21st century; otherwise, much of the investment would be wasteful. Michael Schmidt (2021) recommended in their findings that accommodation were to give a bundle of monetary, fiscal, and other incentives in order to promote investment in the industry. Kamya Jaiswal (2012) believes that the government’s meticulous planning in terms of monetary and fiscal incentives will define the future of the hospitality industry, encouraging many young hospitality entrepreneurs to enter and invest in the sector in the future, assuring the country’s continuous growth and development. He claims that the hotel sector is designed to serve as an infrastructure for the tourist industry, which has a huge profit potential owing to prospective tourism expansion. The sector has made a significant contribution to the national budget and given a considerable number of job opportunities, in addition to numerous additional multiplier effects in all segments of the business. According to Kadam (2013), the primary cause for a setback in the hospitality sector includes lack of suitable infrastructure such as airports, road transportation, communication, and so on. He reminds out that premium and deluxe hotels still have a scarcity of room facilities. He ends by stating that adequate tourist planning is required for small company entrepreneurs, admired for being independent and in charge of their own fate. However, the truth might be quite different. Owners, for example, have no influence on financial, marketing, administrative, economic, technological, or employee-related issues, as well as government rules and initiatives (Vaught, 2010); this can easily result in corporate failure. According to Krishnaswamy (1980), a country must have hotels at varied sites in order to increase tourism. He further claims that the nations from which India used to attract tourists have experienced a halt in growth. The sluggish growth rate of tourist arrivals is caused by factors such as political unrest, increases in gasoline prices, inflation, and recession. It was revealed in a case study that a company’s accounting system assists in uncovering the true state of affairs in the hospitality industry. Mason (2003) suggests that management utilise operational charts for various departments to show profit/loss, sales, and various operating expenditures of these departments, as well as their contribution to the company’s net profitability, over time, the extent to which there is a need for accommodation services. Many elements, such as the length of a visitor’s stay and the occupancy rates of tourist lodgings, should be considered when determining the number of rooms required. The number of rooms or beds required for visitors increases as the yearly occupancy rises, and vice versa. The correct supply, in the right place, at the right time, and the right price, must be built up in terms of demand. Failure to account for future demand would result in either accommodation bottlenecks, which will hurt the tourism business, or surplus accommodation, which will cost the hotel sector money. Because these incomes are denied to other developing sectors due to the improper allocation of scarce resources for this purpose, the entire economy suffers. Banerjee (2011) conducted a study in this area and looked at the capacity of hotels in twelve major tourist hotspots in Uttar Pradesh. The study’s key conclusions were that domestic tourists are not picky about where they stay or expect greater service. Foreign visitors, on the other hand, want higher-quality accommodations. As a result, there is a housing scarcity in response to foreign tourists when enigmatic fundamental breakdowns are presently seen as solidly looming (Apostolopoulos & Liargovas, 2018). 2.2.1. Entrepreneurial growth Zhang & Enemark (2016) analysed the factors that influence business performance in hotels and restaurants. According to the study, business success is assessed by turnover per employee, and is affected by a variety of factors, including firm-internal factors, external economic and demand factors, locational factors, and significant quantities factors. Using an economic model and data from small businesses, the hypotheses were put to the test. The findings demonstrate that traditional explanatory variables including earnings, company investment levels, regional productivity of hotels and restaurants, firm’s intensity are positively correlated with business performance in the hospitality and restaurant industries. Entrepreneurs must have a dynamic mindset and a fresh approach because business is a system made up of certain external circumstances. When examining the factors influencing organisation effectiveness in the hotel industry of Nepal, Chalise (2021) stated that employee qualification, administrative efficiency of hotel management, and Dhanabagiyam et al., Cogent Business & Management (2024), 11: 2285260 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 Page 5 of 14 training and experience supplied to the employee are found to be important predictors of organisational performance; however, the location factor was not found to be the component of organizational performance in the Nepalese hotel sector. 2.3. Hotel industry According to the Hotel Review and Survey Committee (1967), the main area of concern of the Committee was to review the classification of all hotels located at different locations, including the hotels that are newly constructed and are willing to be classified. The Committee was also entrusted with the responsibility of calculating the total room requirement at the end of the 4th Five Year Plan. Another important task that was given to this committee was to review the rates charged by these hotels and to determine the rational basis for standardizing the rate structure. The Committee visited 221 hotels and 94 restaurants located at different locations throughout the country and noticed that only 178 hotels and 59 restaurants were found suitable to be approved. As regards rate structure, the Committee recommended that the hotels should be given a free hand to fix their rates within the modified Hubert Formula. The Committee estimated that by the end of 1981, the requirement of rooms in 3, 4, and 5 Star hotels will be 29,025. Another main recommendation of the Committee was to have a permanent committee to inspect the hotels for classification, as and when the need arises. Spatial planning, which strives to examine the geographical pattern of distinct temporal stages, may be used to make physical planning decisions. The author investigated the geographic organisation of the hotel sector in Mysore (Mahadev, 2010). Bandura (2001) explained the motivations and activities, entrepreneurs produce, and experience from the functional neurobiological like symbolic, social, psychomotor, and other skills. The nature of such experiences depends greatly on the social and physical environments that people select and construct. An agentic perspective contributes to a biopsychosocial understanding of human development, adaptation, and change. Experience depends greatly on the external environment like the socio-economic and internal factor like motivation (Font, 2016). The above literature review shows that a comprehensive view must be established to examine the internal factors like motives, issues and challenges, along the relation with external factors like social and economic factors and strategies for the development of entrepreneurial growth and development. A conceptual framework Figure 1. (Hussain et al., 2013) of this study is to investigate such issues, as it can explain entrepreneurship intention from the view of internal personal factors and the environmental facilitators. Entrepreneurship is multi-dimensional and focuses on both the internal and external factors that have impacted small entrepreneurial businesses survival and success (Cervone et al., 2001). 3. Method The design of the study was quantitative research, and the participants were chosen using a nonprobability sampling procedure in order to meet the research’s goal. Local hotel entrepreneurs in and around Coimbatore were chosen as the demographic for the study’s responses. The study’s sample size is 250 people. Convenience sampling was utilised as the sample method. The sampling is chosen based on the ease with which visitors may get it. The primary criterion for selecting this sampling process is the sample unit. Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling method in which subjects are chosen for their ease of access and closeness to the researchers. Coimbatore is the study area’s location. Coimbatore was chosen because it is a large industrial city in Tamil Nadu, sometimes referred to as the “Manchester” or “Detroit” of India. It is wellknown for producing motor pump sets and other technical products. Coimbatore is noted for its numerous industries, engineering items, textile mills, educational institutions, health-care facilities, pleasant climate, friendly culture, and hospitality. It is on the banks of the Noyyal River in western Tamil Nadu, with the Western Ghats on all sides. By road, train, and air, it is well Dhanabagiyam et al., Cogent Business & Management (2024), 11: 2285260 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 Page 6 of 14 connected to India’s major cities and towns. Coimbatore has a total land area of 246.8 square kilometres. This city has a population of 1,601,438 people. The elevations are 411 metres above sea level. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data. The attributes included in this research are the motives, challenges and opportunities. The questionnaire used for the study consisted mainly of two kinds of questions, namely multiple choice questions and rating scale questions. The respondents filled the multiple choice questions and Likert’s rating scale questions. From the collected responses out of the questionnaire, further coding and analysis were performed in order to get at the study’s findings, recommendations, and conclusion. The research approach for the questionnaire employed a 4-point likert’s scale as the scaling tool. It took into account factors such as strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and extremely disagree. SPSS 20 was used to conduct the statistical analysis like Frequencies, Analysis of Variance and Regression. 4. Need for the study The purpose of this research is to gather information on the features and qualities of small and medium-sized hotel (SMSH) owners in order to discover unique problems in beginning and running enterprises. Some of the factors fueling business visionaries’ initiatives include the desire to be financially independent, to be one’s own boss, to contribute to a privately held enterprise, and the prospects in the hotel sector (Foundation, 2022). Among the key business obstacles highlighted by SMSH owners are firm troubles in the hotel industry, higher labour costs, reduced interest, and a shortage of skilled representatives. To deal with these issues, a few essential systems have been implemented. Contribution-based valuing, improved advertising and promotion channels, improved administration quality, and superior client service are only a few of them. 5. Research objectives The objective of the research is to understand the opinion differences among different gender, age group, educational qualification towards factors included in the study (Motive factor, Issues and challenges, Government-related problems and Strategies) of entrepreneurs in the hospitality sector. To envisage and evolve with a research model of small business operators with motives to overcome the challenges and engaging them in the hospitality sector is proposed. 6. Data analysis and interpretation Table 1 shows the frequency distribution of the respondents’ demographics. It is evident from the result that majority (93.2%) of the respondents are hotel owners. Gender distribution has shown that majority (98%) of the respondents are male. It can be inferred from the above table that under the age distribution of the respondents, the category 46–55 years has the highest frequency value of 98 (39 percent). Marital status of the respondents has shown that majority of them are married (84 percent). It is evident from the result that most (33%) of the respondents hold an under graduate degree as their Educational qualification. It is inferred that 23.2 percent Internal Factors Motives Issues and Challenges Entreprenuerial Growth and Development External Factors Socio-economic Factor Financial Factor Figure 1. Research conceptual framework. Source: Hussain et al. (2013): Factors Affecting the Growth of Enterprises: A Survey of the Literature from the Perspective of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Dhanabagiyam et al., Cogent Business & Management (2024), 11: 2285260 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 Page 7 of 14 lifestyle entrepreneurs’motives to engage in sustainable destination development. Thomas, R. (2000). Small firms in the tourism industry: Some conceptual issues. International Journal of Tourism Research, 2(5), 345–353. https://doi.org/10.1002/1522- 1970(200009/10)2:5<345:AID-JTR236>3.0.CO;2-9 Thomas, R., Shaw, G., & Page, S. J. (2011). Understanding small firms in tourism: A perspective on research and challenges. Tourism Management, 32(5), 963–976. https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.tourman.2011.02.003 Vaught, H. A. (2010). Developing and challenges in the hospitality and tourism sector. https://www.ilo.org/ wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_dialogue/—sector/docu ments/meetingdocument/wcms_162202.pdf Vincent Charles, T. G. (2013). Factors influencing Peruvian women to become entrepreneurs. World Applied Sciences Journal, 1345–1354. https://doi.org/10.5829/ idosi.wasj.2013.27.10.464 Waltower, S. (2022). The top reason most entrepreneurs start businesses. usinessnewsdaily.com/4652- entrepreneur-motivation-benefits.html Zhang, J., & Enemark, A. E. (2016). Factors influencing business performance in hotels and restaurants. Asia-Pacific Journal of Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism, 5(1), 1–20. Dhanabagiyam et al., Cogent Business & Management (2024), 11: 2285260 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2285260 Page 14 of 14