The Entrepreneurial Orientation Skill as Determinant of Small Business Growth

Background to the Study

Skill as basic ability is the means by which man adjust to life. A person’s attitude and work functions are required and necessary antidotes suggesting the suitable skills performance and acquisition of same by going through a given work sample. In the work place, skill is what the workers give in exchange for numeration. If the skill (or the cluster of skills popularly referred to as aptitudes) given is satisfactory, the worker gets satisfaction and the employer gets satisfactoriness in correspondence.

This process, if sustained culminates in promotion, retaining and prolonged tenure that leads to productivity (Lofquist & Darwist, 1967; Adeyemo, 2003). On retirement from active working life, man’s repertoire of skills will no longer be relevant to help him to adjust to life. He needs new skills on how to enjoy his leisure and adjust in his new way of life. This situation is the same for a handicapped person, a widow or indeed any person whose way of life has changed radically. Hence man’s rehabilitation in these contexts requires new skills with special consideration to his aptitudes and work functions.

In this case of youth, whole adjustment in the world of worke will rest solely on skill developed and used first at school and later at work; the economic, moral and political time of the nation will in time to come and depend on it and these will from time to time determine its survival (Lofquist & Darwist, 1967; Adeyemo, 2003). Skill is the ability to perform some tasks creditability. Up to a point, the more practice in the doing of specific task the faster and better they can be done. It is associated with know-how while speed and accuracy are some of its traits and characteristics.

Children who love to paint with crayon and water color often develop unusual perspective and excellent representation of nature. McCarthy (1972) has identified six scales and eighteen skills that can be sorted grouped to describe various aptitudes in children for placement, when the promotion and remediation is a highly treasured experience which every good teacher must possess.

Acquisition and reinforcement of skills and aptitudes through science laboratories and workshop practice and other curricular and extracurricular ctivities represent the most natural ways of stimulating science education and real life work which lead to high productivity. These considerations underscore the need to focus skill development and assessment in our teacher education and in-service training programmes, more especially in the science based teaching subject areas of physics, chemistry, biology, integrated science, agricultural science, introductory technology, wood work, metal work, electrical electronics, home economics, clothing and textiles etc.

This project wok therefore attempts to explore briefly the concepts of skills acquisition as a determinant of business growth with special considerations of their acquisition on some selected small business in Lagos, Nigeria.

Statement of the Problem

Financial problem may deprive some student from learning a handwork thereby depriving them the need skill to make them self-employ. Lack of entrepreneurship teachers and inadequate facilities and equipment for learning pose a great challenge. Lack of interest by the student to learn a handwork also poses a great challenge to skill acquisition. Lack of required skills needed and inadequate training are equally great challenge. Entrepreneurship in particular is attracting the attention of policy makers and researchers because it has been recognized during the last decade as an important untapped source of economic growth.

However, people still lacked some of the important characteristics associated with entrepreneurial orientation (Berger, 2002; Gebremeskel et al 2004) While the effort of youth in developing entrepreneurial orientations necessary for successful entrepreneurship faces serious impediments from institutional and informal practices, far less has been done empirically to examine the relationship between skill acquisition and its influence on the level of performance especially in the Nigerian context. Thus, this study attempt to examine the extent of skill acquisition as a determinant of small business growth.

Objectives of the Study

The major objective of this study is to examine the entrepreneurial orientation skill as determinant of small business growth. Attempt is also made to achieve the following sub-objectives. To:

1. Examine the relationship between skill acquisition and performances of small scale businesses.
2. Examine the factors or challenges that influence and hinder the development of skill acquisition.
3. Assess the extent to which poor or lack of skill diminish the performances of small scale entrepreneurship.
4. Offer suggestions through recommendations on how the performance in small scale businesses can be enhanced through the acquisition of entrepreneurial skill.

Research Questions

To give direction to this study, answers to the following questions are relevant.

1. Is there any significant relationship between skill acquisition and performances of small scale businesses?
2. What are the factors or challenges that influence and hinder the development of skill acquisition?
3. To what extent does poor or lack of skill diminish the performances of in small scale entrepreneurship?
4. Are there any suggestions that could be proffered in order to improve the small scale business through the acquisition of entrepreneurial skill?

Research Hypotheses

• Hypothesis I H0: There is no significant relationship between skill acquisition and performances of small scale businesses. H1: There is a significant relationship between skill acquisition and performances of small scale businesses
• Hypothesis II H0: There are no significant variations in the factors or challenges that influence or hinder the development of skill acquisition. H1: There are significant variations in the factors or challenges that influence or hinder the development of skill acquisition.

Significance of the study

Understanding and acquisition of essential entrepreneurial skill are necessary strategies and tools in small business growth and these will improve stimulating factors for the development of managerial competencies in business.

Nothing in life is more important to an individual than developing the key leadership and personal management skills that are keys to being an entrepreneur in business enterprise. Furthermore, this study is timely and relevant at such a time when the need for appropriate entrepreneurial orientation for propelling business growth and harnessing employee’s behaviour towards certain expectations is becoming ever increasingly crucial. It is hoped that at the end of this project, its finding contributes to the wide expanse of skill acquisition contribution to business success.

It is equally hoped that the findings and suggestions in this study unveils some of the vital contributions of human capital development and skill acquisition to economic growth and nation building through improved capacity for more employment generation for the massive unemployed in the country.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

The scope of this study focused on the skill acquisition as a determinant of small business growth in Nigeria however with restriction to five selected small business within the same domain (Surulere local government area of Lagos state).

The five selected SMEs as follows:

• Nuplas Limited, Surulere – Lagos.
• One, Two And One Beauty And Body Care Nig Ltd
• Beuhlah Diagnostic and Pharmaceutics limited
• Dancol purified water limited Surulere -Lagos.
• Castle Soaps Limited Surulere – Lagos According to Adedayo, (2000) every research project has some extraneous circumstances that can create imperfections.

A few limitations expected are listed below:

• The limitation of time to carry out a comprehensive study of more locations.
• Low rate of response despite measures taken to prevent its occurrence
• Limitation imposed by finance, this study being self-financed. These apart, this research project will be carried out and reported in a manner consistent with acceptable standards

Definition of Terms

1. Gender This is a social construct or category that defines the social relations between women and men in society – relations in which the norm has so often been that women and their needs have been subordinated to men and their needs.
2. Entrepreneur: Is a person who establishes a new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying significant opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them. He could also be regarded as an inventor. An entrepreneur is an individual who owns a firm, business, or venture, and is responsible for its development.
3. Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting a new business or reviving an existing business, in order to capitalize on new found opportunities.
4. Entrepreneurial rientation: The characteristics of acting entrepreneurially to enhance the competitiveness of the firm. Such characteristics may depend on risk taking potential, autonomy in decision making. Innovative and creative abilities, etc.
5. Small Enterprises: An enterprises whose total cost including working capital but excluding cost of land is between one million Naira (N1,000. 000) and one hundred million Naira. (N100,000,000)
6. Medium Enterprise: A company with total cost including working capital but excluding cost of land is more than one hundred million (N100, 000,000) Naira.

REFERENCES

1. Adedayo, O. A. (2000) Understanding Statistics, Revised Edition, Lagos, JAS Publishers.
2. Akande, O. O. and Ojokuku, R. M. (2008). “The Impact of Entrepreneurial Skills on Small Business Performance in Lagos – South-Western Nigeria”. International council for small business conference
3. Aruwa, S. A. (2007) “Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) Financing in the Nigerian Capital Market”. Journal of Administration. Vol. 49(5) P. 175-183.
4. Asaolu, D. O. Elumilade T. O and Adereti, S. A (2006) “Appraising the Institutional Framework for Poverty Alleviation Programmes in Nigeria”.
5. Berger, A . N (2002) Small Business Credit Availability and Relationship Lending: The significance of Hank 0iganisational Structure. Federal Reserve Board Working Paper