ENTREPRENEURIAL SOCIAL CAPITAL AND PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN KISUMU COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship has emerged as a pioneering advance towards dealing with multifaceted social needs, especially in the face of diminishing public funding. The SMEs sector cannot perform well without funding and networking. The failure rate is high if networking is not enhanced. This implies that SMEs in Kenya are threatened for survival as a competitive enterprise. This could result to low economic development and therefore this study sought to find out whether entrepreneurship social capital influence various components of social on the growing of SMEs in Kisumu county in Kenya. The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of entrepreneurship social capital on growing of small medium enterprises in Kisumu county, Kenya. This study therefore sought to find out whether social capital is a contributor to the performance of SMEs in Kisumu by evaluating the influence of various components of social capital on the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kisumu, Kenya. The objectives of the study are to determine the extent to which Electronic data interchange affect the performance of SMEs, to assess how team building affect the performance of SMEs in Kisumu and to explore how knowledge transfer affects the performance of SMEs in Kenya. The study adopted a survey research design. The target population comprised of 400 SMEs registered in Kisumu County, Kenya. The study used stratified random sampling to select 10% of the target population. The researcher theretofore took a sample of 40 which is above 10% of the target population of 400. Data will be collected using a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Qualitative data was analyzed in content analysis and presented in form of essay. Descriptive statistics include frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation and was used to analyze quantitative data. SPSS version 25 were used for analysis. Inferential statistical analysis was used and included multiple regression and correlation analysis and tested the relationship between the study variables. The findings were displayed in tables and figures. The study concludes that electronic data interchange has a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Kisumu County in Kenya. In addition, the study concludes that team building has a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Kisumu County in Kenya. Further, the study concludes that knowledge transfer has a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Kisumu County in Kenya. The study also concludes that shared vision has a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Kisumu County in Kenya. From the findings, this study recommends that the management of SMEs in Kisumu County should embrace process automation and minimize usage of paperwork. In addition, the management of SMEs in Kisumu County should formulate and implement effective strategies to ensure their employees have adequate skills to performance their duties.

Key Words: Entrepreneurship social capital, Social capital, Small and medium enterprises, Knowledge Transfer, Team Building