Abstract:
Small and Medium Enterprises form a large part of Sri Lanka’s economy and the contribution it extends for rural and economic development can never be overlooked. Women owning SMEs is very critical since it is one of the pivotal yet untouched sources of economic growth. Since much attention has been paid to the importance of innovation for the survival and growth of companies and lack of innovations has been identified as a critical factor for SME failures, the impact it has on women owning SMEs is of utmost importance of study.. This paper intends to empirically investigate the impact of innovation orientation on the performance of women owning SMEs. The sample consists of 110 women owning SMEs in Colombo district representing manufacturing and service industries. Data was gathered using a self-administered questionnaires. To realize the research objectives data was analyzed using SPSS and PLS-SEM. The findings show that there is a strong positive association between innovation and firm performance.