Risk management practices and financial performance nexus: Evidence from MSMEs in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the effect of enterprise risk management on the firm financial performance of Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises in Osun state Nigeria. Precisely, the risk encountered, the adoption of risk management practices, the implementation of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) practices, and the financial performance of micro, small and medium scale enterprises in Osun state Nigeria. Primary data was used for this study; a well-structured questionnaire was used to elicit data from 273 respondents. The study population consists of owners and managers of small and medium businesses in Osun state, Nigeria. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and was the inferential statistic used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that market (33.7%), strategic (57%), financial (46.9%), operational (34.2%), management (47.6%), and technological (45.4%) are risks prevalent to micro and small businesses, but most of the respondents disagreed that the relationship of their staff to the customer is poor. Risk acceptance with a mean score of (2.27 ± 1.21) is the most utilized risk management practice adopted by the MSMEs. The implementation of ERM practices shows that MSMEs more utilized setting of objectives (43.6%), risk identification (38.3%), risk assessment (36.2%), and control activities (31.2%) and the financial performance of the businesses was moderate (69.7%). The correlation analysis shows no significant relationship between the scale of business and the adoption of risk management practices. Also, the regression analysis shows that Risk identification (? = 0.388, p ?0.01) and Control activities (? = 1.096, p ?0.01) are the only ERM variables that significantly affect financial performance. The study concluded that the implementation of enterprise risk management practices has a significant effect on the financial performance of Micro, Small and Medium enterprises in Osun State, Nigeria.