PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF MANAGERIAL SKILLS ON THE SUCCESS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES

Abstract

 

 

The study examined the perceived influence of managerial skills on the success of small and medium-scale enterprises in Osun State, Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study consisted of all registered small and medium scale enterprises in Osun State. Two hundred and fifty-five owners/managers of small and medium-scale enterprises constituted the sample using proportionate, stratified and systematic random sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection was “Perceived Influence of Managerial Skills on the Success of SMEs†Questionnaire (PIMSSSMEQ) which was validated by three experts from the Department of Business and Entrepreneurship Education, Kwara State University, Malete. A reliability co-efficient of 0.70 was obtained using Cronbach Alpha. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while hypotheses were tested using t-test statistic at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that managerial skills influenced the success of small and medium scale enterprises to a high extent. Also, the study revealed that no significant difference existed in the influence of managerial skills on SMEs success in term gender and location.   Based on the findings, it was concluded that failure of SMEs would be substantially reduced if SMEs owners/mangers are properly equipped with the managerial skills. The study among others recommended that owners/managers of SMEs should endeavor to acquire conceptual, human and technical managerial skills for optimum performance.

 

Key words: Influence, Managerial Skills, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises