INFLUENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL MARKETING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMES) IN KWARA STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

Entrepreneurial marketing practices differ from continent to continent, country to country, city to city, and sector to sector concerning the social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of every given area. The differentiation of entrepreneurial marketing among space, time, and effectiveness of marketing practices could be the distinction in the rate of survival for any firm or business in a particular environment. Thus, this study investigated the influence of entrepreneurial marketing on the performance of SMEs within the Ilorin metropolis (Kwara State, Nigeria). Specifically, the study examined (i) how innovativeness influences the sustainability of SMEs (ii) the extent to which value creation affects the competitiveness of SMEs (iii) the effect of pro-activeness on SMEs' product expansion. The study employed a descriptive survey and results were analyzed using Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS). Multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. From the results of correlation analysis, the first hypothesis showed that there is a significant relationship between innovativeness and sustainability of SMEs with an r2 value of 0.892 & p-value is 0.0000.05. The second hypothesis also showed that value creation has a significant impact on competitiveness with an r2 value of 0.608 & p-value is 0.0230.05. The third hypothesis showed that pro-activeness has a significant effect on product expansion with an r2 value of 0.541 & p-value is 0.0160.05. The study concludes that entrepreneurial marketing significantly affects the performance of SMEs and recommends that SMEs should adopt entrepreneurial marketing strategies to enhance the level of competitiveness and performance of their enterprise..