How MSMEs Understand Law: Legal Consciousness and Compliance Perception in Indian Enterprises

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_5How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Legal consciousness; MSMEs; compliance perception; governance gaps; Indian Knowledge Systems; socio-legal studies

Abstract

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) constitute the backbone of the Indian economy, yet they continue to demonstrate uneven and often informal compliance with regulatory frameworks. Existing scholarship on MSME governance largely examines compliance through institutional design, enforcement mechanisms, and economic cost analyses. While such approaches explain structural constraints, they insufficiently address how MSME owners perceive, interpret, and internalize legal obligations in everyday business practice.

This paper argues that governance gaps in MSME regulation cannot be fully understood without examining enterprise-level legal consciousness. Adopting a socio-legal and exploratory approach, the study analyses how MSME actors conceptualise law, rely on informal advisory networks, and engage in selective or reactive compliance. Drawing on doctrinal analysis and secondary empirical literature, the paper identifies recurring patterns of fragmented legal understanding, symbolic compliance, and enforcement-triggered adherence that precede formal non-compliance.

Situated within the broader discourse on Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), the paper interprets legal consciousness in MSMEs as reflective of long-standing indigenous governance practices where law is experienced through social norms, intermediaries, and ethical expectations rather than abstract statutory commands alone. By shifting analytical focus from enforcement failure to enterprise-level perception of law, the study contributes to scholarly dialogue on governance, institutional behaviour, and sustainable compliance in India.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Sidheswar Jena
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/15
TI  - How MSMEs Understand Law: Legal Consciousness and Compliance Perception in Indian Enterprises
BT  - Proceedings of the Anubhuti 4.0: Discourses in Indian Knowledge Systems – Pathways of Culture, Inclusion, and Sustainability (ICIKS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 52
EP  - 66
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_5
ID  - Jena2026
ER  -