Determinants of Internal Audit Function Outsourcing Among Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Lagos State (Published)
Micro, Small and Medium Scale enterprises (MSMEs) are recognized globally as the bedrock of meaningful development in any economy. MSMEs significantly contribute to employment and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in emerging economies. Sequel to the economic recession, the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) established a N75billion survival fund to revitalize the MSMEs in the county. Consequently, and to ensure effective utilization of the fund, the study examines the key factors influencing the outsourcing of internal audit function (IAF) among MSMEs in Lagos State. The study adopted survey research design, using purposive sampling technique to select 170 respondents among registered MSMEs by SMEDAN in Lagos. An adapted structured questionnaire was used to collect data, validated using Cronbach alpha with 85% percent response rate. Descriptive and inferential analysis revealed that factors influencing (IAF) outsourcing include asset specificity (3.35), environmental uncertainty (3.53) and cost of auditing (3.43) mean value. This implies that insufficient in-house knowledge, availability of external service providers and cost benefit analysis are major reasons for IAF outsourcing by MSMEs in Nigeria. The study recommended that owners and managers’ of MSMEs should ensure that audit functions are outsourced to external professionals in order to achieve high audit quality at a reduced cost.
Keywords: Cost, Environmental Uncertainty, Internal Audit, Outsourcing, asset specificity
Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Entrepreneurial Self Efficacy and Environmental Uncertainty on Entrepreneurial Success (Published)
The study examines the effect of entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial self efficacy and environmental uncertainty on entrepreneurial success. Three hundred and eighty one (381) samples drawn from a sample population of Nine thousand, four hundred and fifty (9,450) who are small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Lagos State registered with National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) and Association of Small Business Owners in Nigeria (ASBON) is the sample population for the study. The sample size is determined using the formula developed by the National Education Association (1960) while proportionate stratified random sampling technique is used to select samples. Primary data on both the dependent variable (Entrepreneurial success) and independent variable (entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial self efficacy and environmental uncertainty) are collected using questionnaire this research instrument. Entrepreneurial orientation measures are risk taking, innovativeness and proactiveness; entrepreneurial self efficacy measures are optimism and overconfidence while environmental uncertainty measures are hostility, dynamism and competitiveness. Measures for entrepreneurial success include both financial and non financial measures namely: profitability, market share, net asset growth, sales growth and government policies. The research instrument is pretested using fifty selected SMEs during the pilot study. The data obtained from the pilot study is analyzed. Cronbach’s Alpha values of 0.664, 0.795, o.791 and 0.85 for entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial self efficacy, environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurial success respectively are determined while the global Cronbach’s Alpha value is 0.853. The statistics of the model summary reveal correlation co-efficient R = .532 indicating that the combined influence of entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial self efficacy and environmental uncertainty has a positive relationship with entrepreneurial success. The R square is .272 or 27.2% signifying that the combined influence of the independent variables explains 27.2% of the variations in entrepreneurial success. The value of F (3,206) = 27.060, p <.05, illustrates that the combined effect of the variables was statistically significant in explaining changes in entrepreneurial success. This is confirmed by a p value which is less than the acceptance critical value of 0.05. The multiple linear regression analysis results show the equation for the tested model as ENT_SU = -8.326 + .423ENT_ORIENT + .075ENT_SELF + .203ENV_UNC. The model shows that the regression coefficients results for entrepreneurial orientation (β = .423, t = 6.990, p = .000), entrepreneurial self-efficacy (β = .075, t = 1.154, p = .250), and environmental uncertainty (β = .203, t = 3.119, p = .002) indicate positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial success. The results show that a unit increase in entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial self -efficacy and environmental uncertainty would lead to an increase in entrepreneurial success in Lagos State by the same proportion. Furthermore, the findings of the study show that entrepreneurial orientation had the highest influence on entrepreneurial success because the p value is 0.000 followed by environmental uncertainty with p value of 0.002, and lastly entrepreneurial self-efficacy with a p value of 0.250. In the model, entrepreneurial self-efficacy is not statistically significant. It can therefore, be concluded that entrepreneurial orientation and environmental uncertainty are significant determinants of entrepreneurship success in Lagos State, Nigeria. Based on these findings, the null hypothesis (H05) which states that entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial self -efficacy and environmental uncertainty has no significant effect on entrepreneurial success is rejected.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Orientation, Entrepreneurial success, Environmental Uncertainty, entrepreneurial self-efficacy
Environmental Uncertainty and Entrepreneurial Success (Published)
This study aims to examine the effect of environmental uncertainty on entrepreneurial success amongst 9,450 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who are registered members of the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) and Association of Small Business Owners in Nigeria (ASBON) in Lagos State. Proportionate stratified random sampling method was used to select samples from the sampling frame. Sample size of 381 used for the study was determined using the formula developed by the National Education Association (1960). Primary data on the dependent variable (Entrepreneurial success) and independent variable (Environmental uncertainty) was collected using questionnaire as research instrument. Environmental uncertainty measures are dynamism, complexity and hostility while measures for entrepreneurial success are profitability, market share, net asset growth, sales growth and government policies. The questionnaire was pretested by a pilot study of 50 selected SMEs. Data obtained from the pilot study was analyzed and based on the result, the questionnaire was slightly modified giving an overall Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.791. The statistics of the model summary reveal correlation co-efficient R = .519 indicating that the combined influence of the three predictor variables of dynamism, complexity and hostility has a strong positive relationship with entrepreneurial success. The R square is .269 or 26.9% signifying that the combined influence of the predictor variables explains 26.9% of the variations in entrepreneurial success. The value of F (3,206) = 25.321, p <.05, shows that the combined effect of dynamism, complexity and hostility was statistically significant in explaining changes in entrepreneurial success in Lagos State. This is confirmed by a p value which is less than the acceptance critical value of 0.05. The model shows that the regression coefficients results for both dynamism (β = .155, t = 2.390, p = .018) and complexity (β = .464, t = 7.392, p = .000) indicate positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial success in Lagos State. The finding indicates that a unit increase in both dynamism and complexity of environmental uncertainty would lead to increase in entrepreneurial success in Lagos State. The regression coefficients for hostility (β = -.155, t = -2.484, p = .014) indicate a negative relationship with entrepreneurial success, though the relationship was significant, p <.05. Complexity measure has the highest influence on entrepreneurial success with a p value was 0.000 followed by hostility with a p value 0.014, and then dynamism with a p value of 0.018.
Keywords: Dynamism, Entrepreneurial success, Environmental Uncertainty, Hostility, Optimism