Sustainable entrepreneurial business model to uphold Sri Lankan textile handloom communities

Abstract

This study develops a sustainable business model that can foster the growth of the textile handloomindustry in Sri Lanka. The research identified opportunities for product innovations through design intervention and highlighted the potential for community-based entrepreneurship, allowing the development of a novel theoretical model that emphasizes diversified interventions to encourage benefits including and beyond economic growth. This study relied on qualitative data from empirical work, including 9 case studies, 35 semistructured

interviews and field observations. Additionally, three participatory action research focus group workshops were conducted using the KETSO tool. The study reveals the textilehandloom industry is inherently sustainable but structural barriers hinder innovation and growth. The environmentally conscious manufacturing process and social inclusion within weavingcommunities are the key driving forces of sustainability in the sector but the structure of the industry, lack of skills in product design and development, and limited access to markets act asbarriers to innovation and growth. The study further discovered that entrepreneurial culture is notprevalent in community life. As a result, the study proposes a theoretical notion of sustainable community-basedentrepreneurship within the textile handloom industry is determined by the four factors of socialcapital (networks), family web, social status and innovation mix. The proposed business modelconsists of four layers; economic, social, environmental and entrepreneurial.