Abstract
This study was carried out with an intention of establishing the competencies that managers and owners of SMEs possess in Uganda. Alongside that, the researchers also established the quantitative methods that are used in operations of SMEs in Uganda. The motivation of this study was to establish the extent to which owners and managers of SMEs act professionally even when the businesses they operate may not necessarily be formal. This was based on a review of literature indicating that about 90% of SMEs operating in Uganda are informal in nature facing similar challenges of short life span and unprofessional operational activities. Data was collected from 366 SMEs to be able to establish the two key aspects of focus of this study. This represented 95% response rate out of 385 target sample expected to be covered at the beginning of the study. The unit of analysis was a single respondent who was either a manager or owner of a business while the sampling unit was an SME (entity). Findings indicated that despite the informal nature of SMEs in Uganda, they practice some level of professionalism in their operations as judged from the competencies identified and quantitative methods established as possessed and used in SMEs in Uganda.
Highlights
Quantitative methods are mathematical expressions that are mainly used in decision making
This study focused on Small and medium sized entities (SMEs) in Uganda
This explains the possibility of some businesses (SMEs) being in position to operate without any form of license or registration certificate
Summary
Quantitative methods are mathematical expressions that are mainly used in decision making. The aspect of objectivity brings into context the need to allow data and information to give direction to a decision maker (Sebastianelli, 2018). In business, these quantitative methods are used most of the time. The different computations carried out in banks, budget units of government entities as well as simple traders have an element of quantitative methods. Some of these are complex statistical computations while others are simple and easy to use quantitative methods (Huarng, Rey-Martí, & Miquel-Romero, 2018). The level of complexity notwithstanding, use of these quantitative methods is evident in business (Verma, 2016)
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