ENTREPRENEURIAL TRUSTWORTHINESS PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE AMONG SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES IN RIVERS STATE.

Abstract

This study investigated Entrepreneurial Trustworthiness Practice and Performance among Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Rivers State. The study was guided by three hypotheses and objectives. The study examined the relationship between entrepreneurial trustworthiness and performance among SMSEs. The anchored on the theory of entrepreneurship exposure. The study adopted correlational and cross-sectional research design. The population of the study was 12,964 SMSEs with a sample size of 390 SMSEs, and stratified random technique was used, structured questionnaire with 4 Likert scale was used as main source of data collection. PPMCC was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level with the help of SPSS model. The findings of this study revealed that there was a low positive significant relationship between trustworthiness and financial performance. The findings of this study showed that there was a low positive significant relationship between trustworthiness and market performance, customer satisfaction among SMSEs in Rivers State. The study concluded that entrepreneurial trustworthiness practice is inevitable for the success of SMEs. Based on this, the study further recommended that entrepreneurs, managers, employees, parents and society should practice the principles of ethics on their daily activity for the success among SMSEs and society at large.