Economics

The sports goods manufacturing sector of Pakistan is comprised of 10,400 small and medium enterprises and annually contributes 6% to the country’s GDP. Despite its prominent role in promoting economic growth research on the sports goods manufacturing sector of Pakistan remains limited. This research analyzed the effect of entrepreneurial orientation, access to finance, and strategic flexibility on SMEs performance in the sports goods manufacturing sector of Sialkot, Pakistan. 400 SMEs were randomly selected out of 10,400 sports manufacturing SMEs in Sialkot, Pakistan. A pen and paper survey method was utilized to collect data from SMEs managers. Out of 400 SMEs contacted 372 agreed to participate in research. 372 usable questionnaires were received back. The results show that entrepreneurial orientation and access to finance have a significant positive effect on SMEs performance. Whereas, strategic flexibility was found to be insignificant in affecting SMEs performance.

SME Policy 2007, Government of Pakistan, envisaged undertaking measures for development of SME clusters through adequate provision of physical infrastructure, capacity building of sector specific training institutes serving in major clusters, launching of technology up-gradation projects and undertaking initiatives for cluster marketing. Many of these initiatives are now at different stages of implementation. SMEDA, for instance, has initiated 23 physical infrastructure projects for cluster development under Public Sector Development Program. In view of their scope, all such physical infrastructure projects for cluster development do not fall under the definition of a typical 'infrastructure project' which, in both economics and business literature, is limited to road and rail network, sea and dry ports, utilities and industrial estates. To deal with this perplexity, SMEDA and a number of other national and international development agencies use a term "Common Facility Centers" to describe those cluster initiatives which involve physical infrastructure. Common Facility Center (CFC) is, therefore, a commonly used term in development agencies, but there exists no precise definition of CFCs which, consequently, causes the term being over used and ignites vague interpretations. Likewise, there is no comprehensive evaluation framework for CFCs which makes it rather difficult to measure efficiency and effectiveness of these projects. This manuscript aims to deal with both of these issues. It reviews the theoretical underpinnings and practitioners' viewpoint to propose a precise, and indeed very first, definition of Common Facility Centers and a framework for their evaluation. Cluster marketing constitutes another pillar of cluster development strategy, specified in SME Policy 2007. Cluster marketing, however, seems to be the least priority item in agendas of cluster development agencies. Efforts for marketing of clusters in Pakistan have remained just few and far between during the last couple of years. Interestingly, the situation at global canvas is also not so different. A number of countries have undertaken successful cluster initiatives but somehow cluster marketing practices so far have remained few and orthodox in their orientation. This dearth of cluster marketing initiatives partially rests on the absence of a comprehensive framework of cluster marketing. To fill this gap this manuscript proposes the much need cluster marketing framework. The framework is conceptualized on the basis of contemporary theories like place marketing and cross marketing. The pioneer work in studying various facets of clusters and outlining field of cluster development has been carried out by Green and White Book of Clusters. New Frameworks for Cluster Development takes good note of subject reports and aspires to add further dimensions to this fundamental work. We are confident that the proposed definition and evaluation model of Common Facility Centers and framework for Cluster Marketing will prove valuable to national and international cluster development agencies in formulation and evaluation of physical projects and marketing efforts for development of clusters.