The Impact of Institutional Support in SMEs Marketing, and Growth—A Case Study of Retail SMEs in Ghana

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are still hailed as the panacea of economic development of many countries, since they play a fundamental part of the economic fabric in developing a crucial role in furthering growth, innovation and prosperity. In the quest to achieve growth, SMEs unfortunately face severe challenges including the marketing of their products, which stem from unqualified employees in the marketing department, inadequate finance to undertake marketing research, go international, and to participate in trade fairs among other factors. Leaving most SMEs to face these challenges alone usually leads to high rate of demise and low growth rate, hence government and other multi donor organizations provide support to these SMEs in the area of finance, market, managerial capacity building among others. This research assesses the impact of the government support in the form of marketing assistance (training of marketing staffs, access to foreign marketing, trade fairs and exhibitions) to some selected retail SMEs in the ten Regional Capitals of Ghana on their growth. Using firm data report, the results indicated that the provision of support for SMEs to participate in trade shows and exhibitions highly impact positively on SMEs growth, followed by the provision of support in access to international market, and support in the training of marketing staffs of SMEs.

Internal and external obstacles facing medium and large enterprises in Rusayl Industrial Estates in the Sultanate of Oman

“…That is because banks prefer to allocate their resources to large enterprises rather than to SMEs because large enterprises have a lower failure risk (Khan and Almoharby 2007;Al-Shanfari et al 2013, Al-Barwani, 2014Ennis 2015). Previous studies found SMEs face challenges pertaining to the marketing of their products due to unqualified employees in the marketing department, inadequate finance to undertake marketing research, or to go international, and to participate in trade fairs (Berry 2002;Osei et al 2016;Al Belushi and Bagum 2017). For SMEs to be successful they have to continuously increase their market share and target the right market towards company's products and service.…”

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) IV: A marketing assistance to micro, small, and medium enterprises and its financial impact: Inputs to marketing plan

“…It is also reiterated in the study of Osei, Shao, Forkuoh, and Osei, A. (2016), The Impact of Institutional Support in SMEs Marketing, and Growth.…”

International Market Selection for Frozen Shrimp Exports From Thailand: An Integration of Cage Distance Framework and Data Envelopment Analysis

“…The impact of GDP per capita on market selection has also been studied in the context of business cycles and economic growth. Osei et al (2016) found that higher GDP per capita is associated with increased profit and market share for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), influencing their marketing strategies and growth prospects. Additionally, the level of GDP per capita is an important factor in identifying international market competition intensity, reflecting its influence on market dynamics and competitive landscapes (Zhang & Li, 2022).…”