The Motivation of Women Entrepreneurs on the Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Ogun State

Abstract

Undoubtedly, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) promote economic growth. Thus, the study investigated the motivation of women entrepreneurs on the growth of SMEs in Ogun State. It involved one hundred and fifty (150) participants (150 females) in Ogun State who were randomly selected among the population of women entrepreneurs. Their ages ranged between 19 to 70 years with a mean age of 31.86 years (SD = 8.66). Cross sectional design was adopted. Two instruments were used for data collection. Women’s Entrepreneur Development Assessment (WED) (ILO, 2016) and Performance of SMEs (PSMEs), (Maduekwe & Kamala, 2016). One hypothesis was tested. Hierarchical multiple regression was the main statistics used for data analysis. Result of a Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that performance was a positively significant predictor of SMEs’ growth (β = .17, p < .05), accounting for 3% of the variance in SMEs’ growth (∆R2 = .03). The result also showed that motivation was not a significant predictor of SMEs’ growth, although it accounted for 3% of the variance in SMEs’ growth (∆R2 = .03). However, the two predictor variables in the regression model contributed 5% to the explanation of the variance in SMEs’ growth (total AR2 = .05). The implications of these findings were discussed, and suggestions for further studies were equally made.