Entrepreneurial Orientation and Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises SMES in South Eastern Nigeria

Ineffective and poor entrepreneurial orientation seems to adversely affect performance of small and medium scale enterprises SMEs in Nigeria. Thus, the study was designed to examine relationship that exists between entrepreneurial orientation and performance of SMEs in South Eastern Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design. The target population of the study comprised of 35,535 SMEs in South East Nigeria with a sample of 396 respondents, arrived at using Taro Yamane Formula. Data was collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed using, frequency, percentage and mean. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to test the hypotheses at 5 level of significance. Results indicated that there exist a strong positive relationship between strategic orientation and market expansion of SMEs r=0.76, p value 0.05 and that there exist a strong positive relationship between market orientation and market sustainability of SMEs business activities r=0.83, p value 0.05 The study concluded that entrepreneurial orientation has positive impact on the performance of SMEs in South East Nigeria and recommended among others that SMEs need to embrace entrepreneurial orientation, strategic orientation and market orientation, to improve business performance. Chinedu Cosmas Onyemesi | Michael Augustine Ikon "Entrepreneurial Orientation and Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMES) in South-Eastern Nigeria" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-5 | Issue-5 , August 2021, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd43904.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/business-economics/43904/entrepreneurial-orientation-and-performance-of-small-and-medium-scale-enterprises-smes-in-southeastern-nigeria/chinedu-cosmas-onyemesi