Conclusion and Future Research Scope
For big organizations violation of human rights, environmental laws or
social norms will not allow corporations run any longer. But for SMEs
there is lack of transparency in their business operations and therefore
the problem is more intense. For example, labour law violation is a
major problem in the garment industry of India and Bangladesh. Practices
of child labor or unpaid overtime are rampant. Moreover in some of the
most polluting industries like leather, dye and other chemical
manufacturing SME presence is significant. Laws have been passed to curb
the negative impact of SME business operations on environment and
society. But SME managers need to understand the importance of
responsible business behavior. Running their business operation in a
socially and environmentally responsible way may push their profit
maximization goal to a back seat in the short run, in the long run this
proves beneficial to the company for maintaining a sustainable business
growth.
Due to time and resource constraint we had to work with a limited sample
consisting of a small set of SME firms located in and around Kolkata, a
city in the eastern region of the country. Thus the result might show a
geographical bias. Moreover for collaborative approach we have only
considered collaborations at national level. In Asian countries the
internationalization effort in SMEs is restricted to exporting only.
Effort should be made to promote the SME sector to equip them to better
meet the challenges of globalization and to benefit from the
opportunities it offer. Facilitation of trade, intellectual property
protection, improved infrastructure are precursors for entering foreign
market. In emerging economies, these often act as major hindrance to
participate in global value chain and seize global opportunities. Thus
how different forms of international market entry and development, like
foreign direct investment, strategic alliances, licensing,
subcontracting, franchise arrangements and joint ventures can help the
Indian MSME sector to grow in a more sustainable way can be empirically
verified.
Sustainability needs to be viewed not in terms of sustainability of
individual firm but more broadly in terms of having a sustainable
resilient SME business population (Gray and Jones, 2016). Accurate
knowledge on how various components of SME business are dynamically
interacting with broader socio-economic environment is extremely
important for both SME management and government in order to have
effective policy formulation and implementation.
India stands apart from developed western economies both economically
and culturally. Thus mere replication of strategies and policies may not
be feasible or effective in Indian scenario. There is a need for
targeted policy interventions, supported by empirical evidence, to
stimulate MSMEs growth and harness their potential to be the engines of
economic growth for the country.