SME Firm Antecedents and Financing Sources in Nigeria

• Main Author: Abiodun, Eniola Anthony
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2016
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General); HB Economic Theory; HD Industries. Land use. Labor; HG Finance
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/26241/1/Eniola%20Anthony%20Abiodun%20ft.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/26241/

The most common question that has attracted much attention among scholars and practitioners is why some SME finns perfonn better than others. To probe further, the perfonnance of SMEs, this dissertation focuses on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. In spite of the numerous literatures on this subject, there is a need to investigate the SME finn antecedents on the choice of sources of financing in the south-western region of Nigeria with the following objectives, finn-specific characteristics, financial literacy, borrowing costs, and entrepreneurial trait; moderated by entrepreneur-specific characteristics. Based on a thorough literature review and in line with the resource-based view, organisational capabilities and life cycle theories, the study framework was developed. The quantitative research design was adopted. Stratified random sampling was applied and 504 SMEs were selected. The survey instrument was a questionnaire distributed to the firm owners or finance directors or their designated officers. Analysis of the data was by descriptive and inferential statistics. PLS-SEM and multiple logistic regression were applied. The results confirmed a positive relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Significantly, entrepreneurial characteristic only moderates the relationship between firm-specific characteristics and sources of financing. The survey recommended that entrepreneurs should adopt the medium of communication that would lower the perceived risk in financial transactions. Furthermore, human capital skills in decision-making, in relationship to financial attitude have a higher rank of significance to financial literacy. Also, SME firm should focus a great deal more on optimising their tangible and intangible assets to maximise their potential and to increase value along their chain of activities in enhancing financing. The implications of these findings for research and practice ar' discussed. Likewise, the limitations are presented and directions for future research are also suggested.