Assessing the Influence of SME Managers’ Personal Characteristics on the Adoption of Business Development Services in the Cape Coast Metropolis

Abstract

One important aspect of Small and medium-sized enterprises is that they lack sufficient internal skills and experience to handle the challenges that negatively affect their development, which, therefore, necessitates their adoption of external business development services. In line with this necessity, the present study assessed the influence of SME managers’ personal characteristics on the adoption of business development services in the Cape Coast Metropolis. Employing the quantitative research approach, explanatory research design, and cross-sectional survey design, 125 completed and valid questionnaires were retrieved from a population of 160 SME managers who have accessed business development services from the National Board for Small Scale Industries in the Cape Coast Metropolis. A census was employed in selecting samples for the study. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection and it was self-administered. IBM SPSS Statistics Software for Windows, version 23 was the software employed for data analysis. The analytical tools were mean, standard deviation, one-sample t-test, independent-samples t-test, and regression analysis. Consistent with expectations, the study found that personal characteristics of SME managers, namely age, sex, work experience and education jointly and independently influenced the adoption of business development services, confirming the assumptions of the Upper Echelons Theory.