internal Factors and Sustainability of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in South East, Nigeria

Abstract

The study focused on internal factors and sustainability of selected SMEs in South East, Nigeria while the specific objectives include; to determine the degree to which entrepreneurial orientation boost competitiveness of the selected SMEs and ascertain the extent to which entrepreneurial culture enhance progress of the selected SMEs in South East, Nigeria. A survey research design was adopted and primary source of data was mainly used in gathering data from the respondent and this was also supported by reviews from secondary sources for validation. The target population was one thousand, two hundred and four (1,204) obtained from the twenty five (25) selected SMEs in South East, Nigeria. The sample size of four hundred and one (401) respondents was derived from Bill Godden (2004) statistic formula at 5% error tolerance and 95% level of confidence. However, a total of four hundred and one (401) copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the various selected SMEs in South-East, Nigeria. Out of this number, seventy six (76) copies of questionnaire were lost or wrongly filled with percentage ratio of 18.9% while three hundred and twenty five (325) copies of questionnaire were correctly filled and returned with percentage ratio of 80.6% and this was used for data analyses. To test the hypotheses of this study, the study adopted the analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical tools of SPSS Version 23.0. From the result of the data analyses, the result showed that entrepreneurial orientation positively and significantly boosts competitiveness and entrepreneurial culture positively and significantly enhance the progress of the selected SMEs in South East, Nigeria. The study concluded that internal factors have strongly and significant correlation with sustainability of selected SMEs in South East, Nigeria and therefore recommended that SMEs’ owner and managers should be proactive regularly in seeking new product ideas and customer product information that will in turn enable them generate ideas on designing and manufacturing innovative products. In addition, management of SMEs should constantly imbibe entrepreneurial culture and creative innovations that would yield enhanced performance and sustained economic development.