Is culture a restraining or a driving force for entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka?

Abstract

Being entrepreneurial is vital for a country to ensure sustainability. Sustainability is ensured by high levels of opportunity recognition of ventures. Given this, this paper seeks to investigate context specific problems. Does entrepreneurship exist in a country like Sri Lanka? Are entrepreneurial activities limited due to the inherent culture in Sri Lanka? And does culture act as a driving force or a restraining force for entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka? To address these varied questions in existence, we analyze Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions in Sri Lankan context. Each dimension was interpreted and generalizations were drawn in relation to the entrepreneurial impact in Sri Lanka and subsequently questions were answered. A model of Levels of Opportunity Recognition was proposed as a depiction of a strategic tool of sustainability. Finally, we state that inferences drawn are adhering to subjectivity and thus those are required to be tested empirically imposing different implications.