EXTENT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AS A STRATEGY FOR IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

This study investigated the extent of entrepreneurial orientation as a strategy for improved productivity of small and medium scale enterprises in Anambra State, Specifically, the study examined the extent to which risk-taking and proactive orientation strategies can help to improve SMEs in Anambra state. Two research question and two hypotheses were formulated for the study and the study adopted descriptive survey research design and population of the study is 2,698 Managers of SMEs registered with Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Industry in Anambra State as at 2022. The Taro Yemane’s formular was used to determine a sample size of 348 which was used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a researcher developed four point structured scale. The instrument was subjected to both face and content validation by three experts in the field. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 and the two research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation. t-test statistical tool was employed in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings of the study showed that proactive orientation improve productivity of SMEs to a high extent. On the other hand, the findings showed that Risk-taking has low level of improvement on productivity of SMEs. Again, the study revealed that there is no significant difference in the mean responses of the respondents on the extent to which risk-taking orientation can help to improve SMEs in Anambra state based on age, years of work experience and gender respectively. However, it was found that there is significant difference in the mean responses of the respondents on the extent to which Proactive Orientation can help to improve SMEs in Anambra state based on location. It was recommended among others that government, through their different empowerment schemes should support the entrepreneurs by providing EOs training to improve their competence in sustaining their start-up businesses.