Abstract

 
 
 The quality of products from the micro and small enterprise sector is affected by both the entrepreneur’s and enterprise’s attributes. This paper presents and discusses findings of a study that was designed to investigate experimentally the relationship between the quality of arc in the Small Scale Metalwork sub-sector and the combined effect of the artisan’s education level and business location. A total of 36 artisans with secondary education and 36 artisans with primary education consisting of formally (35) and informally (37) trained artisans from urban (29) and rural (43) areas participated in the evaluation. A mild steel product was fabricated by each participating artisan, assessed and scores awarded based on the quality of arc welding. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to show any variation in the quality of arc welding; comparisons of means using the Least Significant Difference (LSD) at the alpha level of 5% were done to determine which pairs of artisans affected quality significantly. The study found out that artisans with secondary education performed better than those with primary education. The study also found out that artisans from urban areas performed better those from rural areas. The findings of this study provide evidence that higher level of education and urban location of business can improve product quality.
 
 
Highlights
The quality of products from the Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) sector is affected by both the entrepreneur’s and enterprise’s attributes
From the results generated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and alternative Least Significant Difference (LSD) tests with mean scores for product quality from artisans presented in Table 6, and as discussed above, it can be concluded that: i) the second hypothesis: The null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in product quality between all artisans working in urban areas and all artisans working in rural areas is rejected
In summary the findings from this specific objective are: (a) The quality of arc welding from artisans working in the urban areas is higher than the quality of arc welding from artisans working in rural areas. (b) The quality of arc welding from artisans with secondary education level working in the rural areas is higher than the quality of arc welding from artisans with primary education class eight working in the rural areas. (c) Overall, the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in product quality between artisans working in urban areas and artisans working in rural areas are rejected as evidenced from the last columns of the table of mean scores
Summary
The quality of products from the MSE sector is affected by both the entrepreneur’s and enterprise’s attributes. The Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) sector entrepreneurs suffer various deficiencies in business management These deficiencies are attributable to their low education levels and training, which in turn adversely affect their ability to produce high quality products among others. The influence of the entrepreneur’s attributes such as age, gender, educational level, mode of training, work experience and membership to business support groups on the productivity and performance of enterprises has been reported. Enterprise attributes such as its age, location, ownership structure, and formal status and business activity determine production outcomes (Kimuyu, 2001)
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