Investigation in to the factors influencing the savings and investment behavior on the success of small scale cinnamon planters in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Small scale enterprises have long been believed to be important in supporting economic development within a country. Due to the lack of an entrepreneurial culture, many Sri Lankan entrepreneurs do not possess the required knowledge on savings and investment strategies to remain successful within their industry. This issue remains unchanged among cinnamon planters as well. The study was based on a microeconomic approach of estimating the factors influencing the saving and investment behavior of small scale cinnamon planters in Sri Lanka. The data was collected through face to face questionnaire using snowball sampling technique and semi structured interviews. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) and word cloud. The findings revealed saving deposits as their main forms of savings while business expansion as their main forms of investments. The findings also developed a conceptual framework that highlighted income, number of dependents, trustworthiness and convenience as the factors that influenced their yearly savings while business growth, risk and return as the factors that influenced their total capital investment. It was recommended to provide a standard price, setting up well equipped factories and proper schemes of saving that would encourage investments within the cinnamon industry to grow with quality cinnamon.