Business management training on performance of youth owned small and medium enterprises in Nakuru County, Kenya
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Date
2017-12
Authors
Mbogo, Leah Wambui
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Effective management training and development programs are aimed at improving the
managers’ performance. Small and micro enterprises have widely been recognized as
the major source of employment for many households in developing countries.
However, three out of five SMEs fail within the first three years of operation and
those that continue 80 percent fail before the fifth year attributed to poor performance
and consistent losses. It is against this background that the researcher attempted to
study business management training and their relationship to SME performance. The
general objective was to study business management training and its relationship to
SME performance in youth owned SMEs in Nakuru County. The researcher used
descriptive research design. For the purpose of this study the target population
consisted of all the 635 SMEs who had access to business management training under
the Improve Your Business (IYB) training programme offered by Kenya Institute of
Business Training to youth owned SME. The sample size was 95 registered SMEs
which constituted 15% of the population. Primary data was used in this study. The
questionnaire was piloted for validity proof by discussing with three respondents at
random. Fifteen questionnaires was administered to randomly selected respondents
and then analyzed using SPSS software for determining reliability. Data was analyzed
using Descriptive Statistics (mean and standard deviation) and Multiple Regression
Analysis which was used to draw inferences on the relationship between the study
variables. The study findings indicated that nature, challenges, trainee characteristics
and training characteristics were important in determining performance of Youth
owned SMEs in Nakuru County. The correlation results indicate that the association
between SME performance and nature, trainee characteristics and training
characteristics of the programs was strong and positive and was statistically
significant. However, Challenges were negatively associated with SME performance.
Regression results also show a positive and statistically significant relationship
between SME performance and nature, trainee characteristics and training
characteristics of the entrepreneurial training programs of youth owned SMEs in
Nakuru County. It was concluded that youth owned SMEs in Nakuru County had put
in place functional entrepreneurial training programs and their nature was a
determinant of performance. It can also be concluded that there were challenges
associated with youth owned SMEs in Nakuru County and these had a negative effect
on performance. It was recommended that the management of the SMEs should
ensure that the program is accommodative with respect to ethical values and behavior.
There should also be allocation of sufficient resources on the training programs as
constrained resources are hindrance in planning for management training. Another
study can be done on those other factors which were not captured by the model in this
study to investigate whether the findings will hold true.
Description
A research project submitted to the school of business in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of master of business administration (entrepreneurship option) of Kenyatta University. December 2017