The Relationship between Business Management Training and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises' Growth in Kenya
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Date
2013-11-25
Authors
Mungai, Bernadette
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Abstract
The study looked into the relationship between training and small and medium-sizedenterprises' growth in Kenya. Lack of basic skills in business management andentrepreneurship seems to be a major drawback in the growth and development of theSME sector. Despite the various research studies conducted in the past on SME training,there has been"poor coordination of the effect of the training offered. Service providersin the SME are not clear to what extent the entrepreneurs benefit from the businessmanagement training, specifically in terms of training and growth of the enterprises. Theobjectives of the study were to establish the relationship between business managementtraining and small and medium-sized enterprises growth in Nairobi, Kenya. The specificobjectives of the study were to establish the nature and types of training offered toenhance SME growth; investigate the relationship between factors that influence thetransfer of learning/training and SME growth in Nairobi and establish the relationshipbetween business management training and SMEs growth. The research design for thisstudy was the descriptive method. The target population for this study were Nairobi based
entrepreneurs who had successfully received business growth training under the MweziKali II Project. The population consisted of 400 entrepreneurs who had operated theirKenya. Systematic and Stratified sampling strategies were used to select the sample of 80respondents in this study. The researcher collected data by administering questionnairesto the entrepreneurs in the target group. The data was analysed using both descriptivestatistics, such as the mean, percentage and frequencies and inferential techniques, suchas multiple regression analysis. SPSS was used to aid the analysis process. The resultswere that business management training had a positive effect on the entrepreneurs and assuch, new products and services were introduced in the enterprise after the training. Thebusinesses were also able to hire more employees after the training as compared to beforethe training. The main conclusions were that appropriately timed and designed trainingprogrammes are likely to have positive effects on business growth; Most entrepreneursvalue training, but cannot afford it; owner-managers need training most but have leasttime to attend management training in finance, production, marketing, lCT and humanresources management are very vital to SME growth and there were positive change inthe businesses after the training. The changes were as a result of attending the businessmanagement training. Finally, the key recommendations were that business managementtraining should be provided to a larger number of enterprises at affordable costs; businessmanagement training programmes should meet the needs of the clients and should be tailor-madeand networks and linkages amongst various support agencies should be promoted so
that training providers can refer their 'Clients for further support.
Description
Department of Business Administration, 222p. The HD 2346 .K4M86 2012
Keywords
Small business --Kenya, Informal sector (economics) --Kenya, Business enterprises --Kenya