EFFECTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALED ENTERPRISES IN THE SOUTHEASTERN REGION OF NIGERIA

Abstract

Human capital is the most critical agent of small and medium enterprise (SME) performance. To this extent, a survey approach was adopted in investing the effect of human capital development on the performance of SMEs. Fifty (50) entrepreneurs operating around the Aba SME cluster, located in the South-Eastern region of Nigeria were interviewed as it relates to their quantity of output, quality of output, revenue generated, and profits as indices of performance, while formal education from educational institutions, on-the-job training, and participation in seminars and trade fairs by SME employees were used as indices of human capacity development. The Likert 5-point scale was used in the quantification of responses. The multiple regression tool was used in analyzing the effect of human capacity development indices on the performance index. The result of the analysis shows that increased human capital development by sampled SMEs leads to significant improvements in their performances. However, on-the-job training was identified as the most significant option for developing the human capital of SMEs for enhanced performance.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 16 citations exist upstream.