Entrepreneurial Perspectives on the Effectiveness of BSCIC Support Services in Northern Bangladesh

Abstract

The underlying forces behind industrial development are the entrepreneurs contributing to the economic development of a country. A good number of institutions are engaged in the development of entrepreneurial class in Bangladesh. Among them Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) has been playing a leading role in developing an entrepreneurial class by rendering various services to the entrepreneurs through its 4 regional offices (Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, and Khulna). As BSCIC is meant for providing support services to help generate, grow and sustain entrepreneurial class in Bangladesh, the current work attempts to know how entrepreneurs perceive these services provided at each of stage of entrepreneurship development cycle besides going through the rules, regulations, and policies made from time to time regarding the development of entrepreneurial class. This paper also attempts to measure the moderating impact on the relationship between entrepreneurs’ biographical characteristics and entrepreneurship development. This study employed positivism paradigm following deductive reasoning approach. A total of 243 responses were collected through a survey questionnaire using 6-point Likert scale. The study in a nutshell reveals that the perceptions of the entrepreneurs regarding the support services provided by BSCIC in most of the cases are not conducive to entrepreneurship development in the Northern Zone of Bangladesh because of the lack of adequate support services provided by BSCIC.