IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

Journal of Business and African Economy (JBAE )

E-ISSN 2545-5281
P-ISSN 2695-2238
VOL. 10 NO. 5 2024
DOI: 10.56201/jbae.v10.no5.2024.pg107.127

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Personality Traits of Business Owners and Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Delta State, Nigeria

NWAFOR-NWANGWU, Kenechukwu & Prof. M. E. TARURHOR

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Abstract

This study examined the relationship between personality traits of business owners and growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Delta State, Nigeria. The measures of personality traits of business owners, are; Openness to experience of Business Owners (OEBO), Conscientiousness of Business Owners (CBO), Extraversion of Business Owners (EBO), Agreeability of Business Owners (ABO) and Neuroticism of Business Owners (NBO) (independent variables) on Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (GSME) (dependent variable). The sampling object used for this work comprises of the managers and owners of SMEs in Delta State and responses from the respondents were collected with the aid of five (5) likert scale questionnaire. A total of three hundred and sixty-three (363) questionnaires were administered, however, two hundred and thirty-nine (239) were retrieved and properly filled while 124 (34.16%) were not properly filled. This two hundred and thirty-nine (239) respondents represent 65.84 percent of the total questionnaire administered, which shows that two hundred and thirty-nine (239) respondents is sufficient for the study. Thus, the sample used for the study was the two hundred and thirty-nine (239) to owners and manager of SMEs in Delta State, Nigeria. The research questions were analyzed with the aid of descriptive statistics and correlation matrix. The hypotheses of the study were tested using the multiple regression statistical tools with the aid of SPSS version 23 as the basis of testing hypotheses. The findings revealed that there is significant relationship between OEBO and GSME (0.008<0.05), there is a significant positive relationship between CBO and GSME (0.009<0.05); EBO has a significant relationship with GSME which is evident with the p- value (0.001<0.05); there is a significant positive relationship between ABO and GSME (0.018<0.05), and finally, finding provides support for result H5 test which indicated that N

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