Impact of Innovativeness Dimension of Entrepreneurial Marketing on the Financial Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper interrogates the impact of innovativeness dimension of entrepreneurial marketing on the performance of small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria. It showed that effective and efficient entrepreneurial marketing especially innovativeness would go a long way to improve on the overall performance of the small and medium scale enterprise. The meaning of this is that any enterprise (be it small or medium) that effectively invest in product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, value innovation, technological innovation among others would grow its market share, sales, turnover, return on investment and more importantly its profitability. More so, innovativeness which enhances the satisfaction of consumers who are referred to as "sovereign" in a free enterprise economy by making varieties of new products available for them facilitates growth and development of the business. It also gives enterprises competitive advantage in the business environment as it increases the gamut of their operation through diversification and quality service delivery. Recommendations made were that: the managers of SMEs should review their strategy for product innovation in relation to the sales growth, turnover, market shares, profitability and return on investment in order to keep their businesses afloat and competitive; the managers are advised to put more emphasis on process innovation in order to develop a more improved strategy that would improve on their performance in the business environment; it is expedient for managers of SMEs to train all employees on entrepreneurial innovativeness especially on strategies for marketing innovation to boost financial and non-financial performance; value innovation needs to be encouraged as it seeks novel ways to create value for customers and fulfill organizational business goals.