Impact of Trade Associations on Entrepreneurial Traits in Nigeria’s Transport Industry

Abstract

The focus of this study is to determine the extent to which the roles of trade associations foster entrepreneurial traits in Nigeria's road transport industry. This paper offers an analytical assessment of the contribution of trade associations towards development of entrepreneurial traits. To do this, the survey method was adopted for the study and questionnaires were used as data collection method. A random of one hundred and forty four (144) trade associations in Nigeria's road transport industry were selected for the study out of a population of two hundred and twenty four (224) trade associations with seven hundred and twenty (720) respondents. For completeness, a sample of six hundred and fifty seven (657) related organizations (infinite population) were included in the study. Therefore a total of one thousand, three hundred and seventy seven (1377) questionnaires were used for the study. The data collected were measured in 5-point likert scale with a hypothesized mean of 3.00. data analysis revealed that overall mean scores of trade associations' pro- competitive and anti-competitive roles on entrepreneurial traits were 1.9346 and 4.4188 respectively. The test of hypothesis using two sample z-test showed that the Z- calculated value for differences in the two mean scores was 216.0147 with significance probability of ˂ 0.0001 which is less than 0.05. Thus the test was significant at 5% level of significance (P˂0.05). We therefore reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis. Consequently we conclude that the effect of anticompetitive role is significantly higher than that of pro- competitive role of trade associations on the development of entrepreneurial traits in Nigeria's transport industry