The present study investigates the sustainability of microenterprises using primary data on 222 microenterprises in the informal small business segment of India. We identified relevant factors inducing entrepreneurs to sustain their business despite facing challenges emerging in the business world from time to time. The findings indicate that microenterprises with higher initial capital investment and those run by more experienced entrepreneurs have more chances for their long-run survival. The findings further indicate that the attainment of higher education is unrelated to long-term survival in the microbusiness world, perhaps because it opens more options of livelihood leading to exploration and experimentation of other areas of work engagement. The probability of long-run survival is higher in manufacturing microenterprises as compared to trading and services, likely because manufacturing experiences less volatility in this penurious context. Finally, microenterprises managed by males have better chances of long-run sustainability than female-operated microbusinesses.

中文翻译：

---

最小的生存：印度哈里亚纳邦的微型企业研究

本研究使用印度非正式小企业部分中222家微型企业的主要数据，调查了微型企业的可持续性。我们确定了一些相关因素，这些因素尽管在商业世界中不时出现挑战，但仍能促使企业家维持业务。研究结果表明，具有较高初始资本投资的微型企业和由经验丰富的企业家经营的微型企业，其长期生存的机会更大。研究结果进一步表明，高等教育的获得与微商业世界的长期生存无关，这也许是因为它开辟了更多的谋生选择，从而导致了其他工作领域的探索和试验。与贸易和服务业相比，制造业微型企业长期生存的可能性更高，这可能是因为制造业在这种不利环境下的波动性较小。最后，由男性管理的微型企业比女性经营的微型企业有更好的长期可持续性机会。