FACTORS INFLUENCING SUSTAINABILITY OF WOMEN OWNED SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES: A CASE OF NKUBU TOWN, IMENTI SOUTH SUB-COUNTY, MERU COUNTY, KENYA
Floridah Igoki Mbogori - Master of Arts in Project Planning and Management, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Dr. Stephen Luketero - Lecturer, School of Mathematics, University of Nairobi, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Women owned SMEs have continued to collapse despite the growing number of initiatives and resources made available to promote and develop women’s entrepreneurship in developing countries. Women are still earning less money in their businesses that have a slow growth, are more likely to fail and tend to be more necessity entrepreneurs. In Nkubu town Imenti South Sub-County, sustainability of women owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is facing a lot of challenges. The purpose of this study was to establish the factors influencing sustainability of women owned SMEs in Nkubu town Imenti South Sub-County, Meru County. The study was guided by the following objectives; to establish the influence of entrepreneurial training, networking opportunities, source of funding and technological know-how on sustainability of women owned SMEs in Nkubu town Imenti South Sub-County, Meru County. The findings of this study would be of great importance to the women who are involved in SMEs in Meru county and entire parts of the country. The findings of this study would be used by government and policy makers to get the insight of real factors influencing sustainability of women owned SMEs on issues of management as compared to their counterparts. This study was anchored on pecking order theory, credit rationing theory and household economic portfolio model. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population for this study was 286 owners of SMEs comprising of food vendors, clothing vendors, beverages vendors, services vendors and curio vendors Stratified random sampling technique was used in this study. A sample size of 192 was calculated using the Cochran formula. Primary data was obtained using self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaire was made up of both open ended and closed ended questions. The researcher personally administered the research instruments to the respondents using a drop and pick method. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 25.0). After data cleaning which entailed checking for errors in entry, descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean score and standard deviation was estimated for all the quantitative variables. The qualitative data from the open-ended questions were analyzed using conceptual content analysis and presented in prose. Inferential data analysis were done using multiple regression analysis. Information was presented inform of tables. The study found that that business training and seminars, training on communication skills and financial management have a great influence sustainability of women owned SMEs in Nkubu town. The study also revealed that sustainability of women owned SMEs is greatly enhanced by family funding, government funds and financial institution. The study concluded that entrepreneurial training had the greatest influence on sustainability of women owned SMEs in Nkubu town in Kenya followed by technological knowhow, then networking opportunities while source of funding had the least influence on the sustainability of women owned SMEs in Nkubu town in Kenya. The study recommends that women owned small and medium sized enterprises should possess technical, interpersonal, and conceptual skills to effectively plan, lead, organize and control the enterprise effectively leading to increased performance and consequently sustainability. The study recommends that Mentorship programmes should be put in place where women entrepreneurs work under experienced entrepreneurs in their trade areas.