CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR SMEs PERFORMANCE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Abstract

This study seek to examine the extent critical success factors like top management support, entrepreneurial orientation and customers focus aid in the performance of small and medium enterprises SMEs in Anambra State Nigeria. A survey research design was applied for this study. Data was collected through survey questionnaires applied to business owners and senior managers working in SMEs in Anambra State, using purposive sampling technique. Simple Linear regression was applied to test the hypotheses. The study found out that critical success factors are significant and positively related to SMEs performance. This is due to the fact that all the decomposed variables of critical success factors and the SMEs performance had significant positive relationships with each other. The study recommends that small and medium enterprises should always take decisive and calculated risks to offer better products to the target customer and that customer requirements should dominate all activities of small and medium enterprises at all times. Management of small and medium enterprises should deal with the tendency to offer what it wants customers to get.