Environmental Influence on the Performance of Nigeria Small Business

Abstract

The major purpose of this study is to make an exposition on the nature and impact of environmental and economic influences on the performance of small businesses in Nigeria. The internal influences which include manager's capabilities and organization's resources and capacities are more amenable to control; while the external influences, which are wider and more complex: the infrastructural, technological, economic, political, and social factors, are not easily susceptible to organizational control. But it should be realized that certain influences, external or internal. Because of the economic, social, and cultural variations, the effects might not be the same for both wealthy and undeveloped countries. Nigeria has been found to belong among the nations that experience poor small business performance, in spite of continual governments efforts towards resuscitating the sector. This paper also finds that the root causes of SMEs underdevelopment: inconsistent government policies, ineffective infrastructure, ineffective and inadequate business supporting institutions, and official corruptive influences will need to be decisively combated; so as to create the right kind of business environment needed to realize one of Nigeria's Vision 2020 agenda elements of installing a virile and purposeful small business sector.