Boosting Small and Medium Enterprises Performance in Nigeria through Mobile Commerce

The evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought about various changes and advancement in the world of business. Currently mobile phones can do lot more than just making and receiving calls. They are now used to further enhance business activities such as buying and selling, banking, marketing and much more. This paper examined the effect of m-commerce on SMEs in Nigeria and how its performance can be boosted. Ordinary least square regression was employed to measure the extent to which the small and medium enterprises were influenced. The results revealed that small and medium enterprises in Nigeria have not sufficiently adopted m-commerce in doing business. In order to achieve the cashless economy campaign by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), adopting m-commerce for small and medium enterprises is inevitable. The study recommends that Nigerian microfinance banks should develop mobile site and provide banking services to small and medium enterprises since they are directly involved with them. Keywords: Mobile commerce (M-commerce), Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Small Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to hypermarkets: critical quality aspects in delivering food and beverage products

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the economic growth and development in Malaysia. According to the Malaysian Standard of Industrial Classification (2008), food and beverage is a sub-sector of the manufacturing sector, which is the second largest concentration of SMEs. This study focused on SME entrepreneurs in order to gather their thoughts on imparting quality in their products to penetrate the Malaysian hypermarkets. Primary data were gathered from 426 SME entrepreneurs using a structured questionnaire. Independent and dependent variables were formed on a five-point Likert-type scale which specifies the strength of the respondents’ agreement or disagreement with the statements provided. Several statistical tools and techniques, such as descriptive statistics, Zero Order Karl Pearson’s correlation and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the findings and to draw conclusions. The study revealed that food and beverage entrepreneurs gave more emphasis on the esthetics aspect of the products to expand their businesses and to enter hypermarkets. Entrepreneurs who have yet to supply their products to hypermarket focused on more aspects (e.g. product performance, food features, conformance to specifications and reliability of the product) than entrepreneurs who have already been supplying their products to hypermarkets. The findings of this study will assist SME entrepreneurs and the Malaysian SME authority who are working towards expanding their products, especially on food and beverages and for those thinking of penetrating hypermarkets with their products

Moderating effects of organizational learning capability on the relationship between innovation, branding and SMEs performance in sports industry of Pakistan

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a catalytic role in strengthening the economy of developing counties. The performance of SMEs depends on various factors. Among those factors include innovation and branding practices. This study aimed to investigate the nature of relationship that exists between Innovation, Branding and SMEs performance in sports industry of Pakistan. Furthermore, the study intended to examine the moderating effects of organizational learning capability on relationship between Innovation, Branding and SMEs performance. A structured questionnaire representing dimensions related to innovation, branding, organizational learning capability and SMEs Performance was designed. Survey method was used to conduct study on 352 SMEs in sports industry of Pakistan. Multiple Regression analysis was employed in order the study the nature and strength of relationship between Innovation and SMEs Performance, as well as between Branding and SMEs Performance. Results indicated that both Innovation and Branding have a significant positive effect on SMEs performance. Hierarchical Regression Analysis was utilized to see the moderating effects of Organizational Learning Capability on relationship between Innovation, Branding and SMEs performance. Findings revealed that Organizational learning Capability does not moderate the relationship between Innovation, Branding and SMEs performance. These results imply that SMEs must emphasize on bringing innovations and embracing branding practices if they desire to enhance their performance. The study also contributed to the theory as it extended Resource Based View, Dynamic Capabilities Perspective and the Theory of the growth of the firm by integrating three distinct literature streams pertaining to Innovation, Branding and Organizational Learning

The influence of the six domains of entrepreneurial ecosystem on the Malaysian small and medium enterprises performance

The government of Malaysia has ensured Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is able to increase entrepreneurial activities. Blueprints such as the Malaysian SME Masterplan 2012-2020 are among the notable efforts to aid the development, sustainability, and growth of SMEs. However, the SMEs are still entangled with issues and challenges which is reflected in the high failure rate, close to 60 percent and on a constant rise. Therefore, this study focuses on exploring and examining the SME Entrepreneurial Ecosystem to present a framework and to examine the influence of the domains of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem on the SME Performance. Mixed-method research design was employed. For qualitative method, a total of 131 entrepreneurs were interviewed, and for quantitative design a total of 877 entrepreneurs were surveyed. The qualitative finding resulted in a detailed framework with the discovery of a new domain called Entrepreneurial Networking, and 6 other domains with 23 sub-categories respectively. The quantitative finding indicated the ecosystem is positively correlated to performance, with Pearson correlation coefficient of r = 0.682. And the other variables indicated r = 0.593 (Policy), r = 0.475 (Finance), r = 0.550 (Culture), r = 0.556 (Support), r = 0.651 (Human Capital) and r = 0.572 (Market). Human capital (0.651) was identified to have a strong positive correlation towards the performance. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis indicated that the model explained 51% of the variance (R2 = 0.509, F (6.870) = 150.373, p < 0.001). Human Capital had strongest (β = 0.345, p< .001). Hence, the study revealed that the domains have substantial contribution to the success of SMEs. This study discovered the framework for Malaysian entrepreneurial ecosystem, discovered a new domain, and its influence on performance