ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES PERFORMANCE IN THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRETORY OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The issue of entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of SMEs will for a long time remain an
interested area of research. The objective of this paper is to examines the effect of entrepreneurial
orientation on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) of Nigeria. The population of this study consists of 2,236 of SMEs operating in the
six area councils of FCT-Abuja, Nigeria. While the sample size is 331 copies of the questionnaire
were administered to target respondents using stratified random sampling techniques. 232 copies of
the questionnaire were duly completed and returned. The returned copies of questionnaire were
inputted, coded and screened using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) statistics 22
software. Hence, the final number of 232 valid data was used. The data were analyzed using Partial
Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The result showed that entrepreneurial
orientation is positively significant to SMEs performance in FCT-Abuja, Nigeria. The paper
recommends that government, stakeholders, and policy makers should endeavour to promote
entrepreneurial orientation that will improve SMEs’ performance in FCT-Abuja and Nigeria as a
whole. This study also suggests that government should make more efforts in funding SMEs
operations in FCT-Abuja.