Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation on the Performance of Small Businesses in Cape Coast Metropolis

Abstract

The study looked at the impact of creativity, pro-activeness and risk-taking on performance of small business in Cape Coast Metropolis. The study discussed the theory of firm development, resource-based theory, the principle of entrepreneurship orientation and small business performance evaluation as part of the theoretical and conceptual analysis. The thesis adopted the descriptive design discussed in a quantitative analysis. In all, 132 small businesses in the Cape Coast Metropolis were included in the study and the research employed a questionnaire to elicit the required data for the study. The study employed frequency tables and regression analysis to examine the level of entrepreneurial orientation between small businesses in Cape Coast Metropolis. The finding indicates that risk taking has an effect of the performance (profit growth) potential of sampled SMEs. the study found a significant relationship between age of business and firm performance. This finding indicates that the age of the sampled SMEs, whether young or old, has an effect on the performance of the business. The significant findings may be attributed to the fact that the more you stay in business the more you get experience to run the business effectively. Based on the results, it is suggested that managers of SMEs or entrepreneurs in Cape Coast Metropolis must be enrolled in effective entrepreneurial orientation programs to equip them with entrepreneurial knowledge, which will go a long way in helping them run their SMEs and other businesses effectively.