INTEGRITY AND FIRM SUCCESS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES (SMEs) IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study examined integrity and success of small and medium enterprises in Rivers state. The population size of the study consisted of registered1, 658 small and medium
scale entrepreneurs from manufacturing, commerce and service sectors in Rivers state.
Simple random sampling technique was used for the study. Taro Yamane formula was used with 0.05 percent degree of error to determine the sample size. The sample was 300 SME owners and managers. The instrument for data collection was a structured research questionnaire. A reliability coefficient of 0.84 was obtained using Cronbach’s Alpha Formula for the instrument used for the study. Data collected for this study was analyzed using percentage for the demographic data and hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product-Moment correlation at 0.05 level of significance. It was found in the study that integrity has a positive relationship with profitability, no relationship with customer satisfaction, and a positive relationship with growth of SMEs in Rivers state. It was concluded that SMEs in Rivers state need to go beyond the traditional way of doing business and imbibe ethical practices in their day to day business activities in order to remain competitive in the fast changing business environment. Otherwise, they will experience business failure since businesses no longer rely only on good products. It was recommended among others, that SMEs in Rivers state should teach their employees ethical practices for genuine and proper customer satisfaction and emulate ethical standards found in large organizations irrespective of their insufficient funding.