Firm Characteristics and Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Nyeri County, Kenya

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dc.contributor.authorWathegi, Robert Ngatia
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-24T09:42:05Z
dc.date.available2019-10-24T09:42:05Z
dc.date.issued2019-05
dc.descriptionA Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration (Finance Option) of Kenyatta Universityen_US
dc.description.abstractMost of small and medium enterprises in Nyeri County are small scale ventures with less than 10 employees, whereas 70% of them are single individual worker or Sole proprietorship. This implies that majority of SME entrepreneurs are working at the economy base, with a huge percentage of them falling amongst the 53% of Kenyans living lower than the poverty line of one USD every day. Growth of small and medium enterprises in firm size, age, industry sector and management efficiency is an area of concern in Nyeri County. As a result of various challenges most small and medium enterprises have not grown in size and collapses within a very short period of time after they start. In addition, several small and medium enterprises in Nyeri County have not appreciated concentrating in one industry sector and advancement in management skills which may be a major contributor to slow growth in the enterprises within the County. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: to determine the relationship between firm size, age, management efficiency, industry sector and growth of Small and medium enterprises in Nyeri County, Kenya. The study was anchored on stakeholder’s theory, resource based theory, agency theory and operating cycle theory. The research design adopted by the study was descriptive design. The study targeted 840 Small and medium enterprises and since the number of Small and medium enterprises is huge, a stratified random sampling was used to arrive at 126 Small and medium enterprises. Semi-structured questionnaires were used for collecting data which was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools and presented using tables. The study found out that the size of the firm and the age of the firm had positive and statistically significance effect on growth of Small and medium enterprises with p value of 0.01 and 0.03 respectively. In particular, large firms were found to perform better than small firms due to their ability to source for more funds from external sources, increase in sales turnover and value of capital employed leads to growth of firms. Industry sector had positive but statistically insignificance effect on growth of small and medium enterprises with p value of 0.751. Management efficiency had negative and statistically significance effect on the growth of small and medium enterprises with p value of 0.001.The study concludes that the management of the Small and medium enterprises gains experience over time and the longer the time in the operation the more the managers are experienced and efficient in dealing with enterprise challenges. In addition, individuals running the small and medium enterprises need to be trained on entrepreneurship and management skills. The study further concludes that Small and medium enterprises should evaluate how the industry is performing in order to establish whether their business has adapted well in the industry sector.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipKenyatta Universityen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/19897
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherKenyatta Universityen_US
dc.titleFirm Characteristics and Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Nyeri County, Kenyaen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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