Instrument for Testing Innovation on the Sustainable Growth of Manufacturing SMEs in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper is based on a pilot study which was conducted to test innovation on the sustainable growth of SMEs by focusing on the methodological viewpoints. The objective of the pilot study was to assess the viability, length of time, cost, and adverse effects of innovation on the sustainable growth of SMEs in Nigeria so as to enhance the design of the questionnaire before its full implementation. A review of the research instrument was performed by four multi-disciplinary academics who specialised in management, accounting, and strategic management, respectively. The aim was to ensure consistency in the questionnaire so that respondents would have no trouble completing them. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) Version 23 was used to assist in the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) which tests for reliability and the Cronbach alpha values were used to examine the content and face validity of the instrument. All the constructs and items used in the model were adapted from previous literature. The sample size used for the study comprised 100 respondents recruited from the SMEs operating in Nigeria. The findings showed that all the constructs in the model carried a high Cronbach alpha value of above 0.7. Therefore, all items used in the instrument were retained. This study is expected to contribute to the literature on methodological multivariate studies, the quantitative approach research on innovation, and the sustainable growth of SMEs.

Effect of Organisational Culture on Sustainable Growth of SMEs: Mediating Role of Innovation Competitive Advantage

“…This findings was consistent with the research conducted in other settings by (Sheng et al, 2013). In other words, this study contributes significantly in the strategic management research by investigating the inconsistencies asserted regarding the effect of organisational culture on the sustainable growth of SMEs, and filling the lack of empirical literary research on the mediating role of innovation competitive advantage on the effect of organisational culture and sustainable growth of SMEs which is novel and provide new insight to this study (Schmitt, 2018;Nimfa et al, 2020).…”

“…The total of 247 enterprises were collected after the third month having 29.06 percent response rate. The response rate is low when conducting any organisational research dealing with owner managers usually close to 20 percent would be considered optimistic (Saleh, & Ndubisi, 2006;Nimfa et al, 2020), which is equivalent to similar research in developing countries, especially Nigeria. This was consistent with the study of (Sekaran, & Bougie, 2016), they stated that the ideal response rates in social sciences researches are 5 percent and 35 percent accordingly.…”

“…al 2009; Paswan, & Wittmann, Journal of International Business and Management (JIBM) https://rpajournals.com/jibm 2009;Nimfa et al, 2020) with alpha value 0.947. All constructs used 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree were adopted for answering each item of the unidimensional constructs.…”

Total Quality Management and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ (SMEs) Performance: Mediating Role of Innovation Speed

“…According to [39], the definition of innovation is the commercialization of new concepts. It is also the incorporation, adoption, or creation of anything new to gain a competitive advantage in goods, services, working procedures, or management techniques.…”

Towards the Underlying Theories of Small Firm Growth: A Literature Review

“…On the other hand, Nor-Aishah et al (2020) advocated that a firm’s diversification-level, innovation and strategic efficiency lead to entrepreneurial bricolage. Studies conducted by Jahanshahi and Brem (2017) and Nimfa et al (2019) described that sustainability among small firms is caused by the strategic efficiency of the firm’s entrepreneurs. The upper echelon tasks also directly contribute to small firms’ growth (Tacheva et al, 2020).…”