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Effect of Diversification on Microenterprises’ Development in Ikwuano LGA, Abia State

Igbokwe, C U, Onyebu, M C, Oluwafemi, A M

Abstract

This paper aimed at examining effect of diversification on microenterprises’ development in Ikwuano LGA, Abia State. The specific objectives include determining: The socioeconomic characteristics of the small scale entrepreneurs in the study area, the criteria for measuring entrepreneurship excellent of micro-diversification in the study area, the factors affecting micro- entrepreneurs in micro-diversification in the study area. Simple Random sample technique was used to select one hundred and twenty (120) respondents. The data was collected using a questionnaire and subjected to analytical techniques such as 5-point likert scale, Product moment correlation coefficient, analysis of variance, using Special Package for Social Sciences (SPSS v.21). The result revealed that stock expansion, increase in income, increase customers’ loyalty, increase risk management, extension of enterprise, financial stability and increase number of employees were the major criteria for entrepreneurship excellence through micro-diversification in the study area as they all have their mean value X>3.00. It is revealed that financial inadequacy, regional security, lack of orientation on micro-diversification, Political influence was the only factor that affects the micro-entrepreneurs positively among all other factors with negative influences. The analysis revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between micro-diversification and entrepreneurial excellence. That is, as the entrepreneurs embraced micro-diversification, they record positive changes in the microenterprises, hence, entrepreneurial excellence. The result showed that entrepreneurship excellence has a degree of freedom (df) 7.112 and Fcal 14.345 > Ftab 3.27 at a significant level of 0.000 < 0.05. The implication of this analysis is that the Fcal 14.345 is greater than the Ftab 3.27, and therefore, based on the decision rule, the null hypothesis is rejected in favour of

Keywords

MicroDiversificationEntrepreneurshipMicroenterprise.

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