Effect of Social and Human Capital on the Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in South West Nigeria
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Adeodu, Adebayo Sulaiman
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Adeyemi, Kenneth Sola
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Kwara State University (Nigeria)
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2020
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
239
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Body granting the degree
Kwara State University (Nigeria)
Text preceding or following the note
2020
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
The world economy has shifted from production system to knowledge based economy. The business environment has become volatile with the advent of globalization, increased competition, consumers changing tastes, information and communication revolution. Organization must rely on networking with all stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, employees and others to establishing necessary contact with the outside world to ensure that collaborative efforts yield synergetic effects and promote trust necessary for teamwork in the organization.This study examined the effect of social and human capital on the performance of SMEs in South West Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study are to: assess the effect of social and human Capital on profitability, examine the effect of social and human capital on sales revenue, determine how social and human capital affect employment generation, investigate how social and human capital affect the service delivery and establish the joint effect of social and human capital on the performance of SMEs in South West Nigeria. Data were collected using questionnaires administered to three hundred and ninety three (393)business owners through stratified random sampling. Out of these, three hundred and two were returned from the sampled of three categories of business selected (manufacturing, trading and services). Analysis of data was carried out using Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression analysis to determine the nature of relationship between variables that is, social capital, human capital and performance of SMEs (profitability, sales revenue, employment generation and service delivery).Findings from the study showed that building on Social and Human Capitaldimensions such as networking, trust, norms and values, Education, training and experience and skills were jointly and independently improved the Profitability level of SMEs in South West Nigeria. The R value is 0.503 and ANOVA 'F' value is 29.096 at P Value of 0.000. The result also indicated that building on networking, trust, norms and values improved the Sales revenue of SMEs, hence, r is equal to 0.434 and Human capitalis 0.457 respectively which both were positive. Also, the results showed that there is positive relationship between social and human capital and Employment creation. Hence, capital explained 42.1% variance in employment creation and the remaining 57.9% was accounted for by other factors not considered. The result also revealed that social and human capital dimensions such as networking, trust, norms and values, Education, training and experience and skills jointly and independently influence service delivery with positive value of 0.494 and 0.363 for social capital and Human capital respectively.Hence, Social capital and Human capital explained 24.40% and 13.18% variance respectively in service delivery and remaining 75.60% and 82.18% was accounted for by other factors not considered in the model. Study also revealed that dimensions such as networking, trust, norms and values, Education, training and experience and skills jointly and independently influence performance of SMEs in South West Nigeria, hence, there is significant relationship between the joint effects of Social and Human capital on SMEs performance. Here, it showed a relationship r value of 0.524 indicating a positive relationship and r2of 0.274 indicating 27% variance in Performance of SMEs while remaining 73% was explained by other factors which were not included in the model. Also, the Beta values of Social capital (β is equal to 0.119, 0.268, 0.267, 0.361), and human capital (β is equal to 0.476, 0.112, 0.145, 0.289) significantly and independently influence the Performance of SMEs. In Conclusion, building on Social and Human Capital by SMEs Operators will improve the firms' profitability, sales revenue, employment creating and better service delivery.This study recommend that there is a need to learn how entrepreneurs can build up and use the relevant aspects of social capital and in some cases, they should even be able to learn how to un-acquire it. More so, business owners having experiences in the same industry raises entrepreneurs' self-confidence, knowledge and understanding of customers' needs and demands, and their connections with suppliers. Potential entrepreneurs should gain some experience in the same industry to help them generate new ideas for products, services, systems or procedures; showing creative thinking for cutting costs and increasing their customer base. Governments and policy makers who are interested in promoting entrepreneurship to carry the employability agenda forward should place special emphasis on providing opportunities for gaining experience. This can be achieved by providing government funded internship schemes. Also, SMEs Operators running their enterprises in high-technology and manufacturing sectors, bridging social capital is more important in it performance. Networks play an important role in the early stages of small and medium businesses; however, owner's interaction with experienced business owners makes crucial differences as businesses grow, especially in the "take-off" and "growth" phases. Therefore, SMEs Operators' should pay special attention to recognizing their source of social capital. They should go beyond local, regional and professional networks.