THE IMPACT OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP PERFORMANCE IN AKWA IBOM STATE (A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED ENTERPRISES IN AKWA IBOM STATE)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the Study
The relationship between the entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial environment has been given attention in the last few decades. The Nigerian business has been evaluated has assessed by several scholars and several suggestions has been recommended but there has been no visible change, particularly in the area of unemployment in the country. A recent survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2011 showed that overall unemployment rate increased from 21.4 percent in 2010 to 23.9 per cent in 2011. Further analysis showed that the unemployment rate in rural and urban areas was 25.6 and 17.1 per cent respectively. People who are less than 14 years constituted 39.6 per cent while those between 15 and 64 years constituted 56.3 per cent (National Bureau, 2012).
A business environment comprises of such factors as infrastructure, cultural, economic, social political environments. These environmental forces has been found to be capable of either impeding or facilitating entrepreneurial activities in any economy. The world Bank is of the opinion that improvements in the enabling environment leads to greater levels of investment by private sector through consultation and private sector, more wealth, job creation, and ultimately more poverty alleviation. The best way for government to understand how to improve the enabling environment is to involve the private sector through consultation and dialogue and in particular, to understand and address the private sector’s needs and priorities as they are actively involved in nation’s building.
Upon this background, this study seeks to examine the impact of business environment on entrepreneurship performance in Akwa Ibom State.
- Statement of the Problem
Entrepreneurial development has continued to be a popular concept in the world due to its leading role as catalyst for nation’s growth and economic development. Entrepreneurship globally, can boast of being a major employer of labour if compared to major industries and multinationals (Kadiri, 2011).
The Nigerian government has initiated several programmes that are geared towards the mobilization, training and supporting initiatives that will development. despite all these, the efforts seems abortive, this can be linked to the problems embedded in the Nigerian business environment, some of which are corruption, unavailability of good, roads, erratic power supply, political instability, presence of inflation.
- Objective of the Study
The main objectives of this research are to investigate the impact of business environment on entrepreneurship performance in Akwa Ibom State. In achieving the main objective there are specific objectives and they are to:
- To unveil the environment challenges confronting business in Nigeria.
- Identify the impact of business environment on entrepreneurships productivity.
- To assess governments monitoring and control activities to ensure entrepreneurship performance in sustaining economic development in Akwa Ibom State.
- Research Questions
In carrying out this research, some questions become imperative:
- What are the environmental challenges confronting entrepreneurship in Akwa Ibom State?
- How does the business environment affect entrepreneurship performance in Akwa Ibom State?
- What are the government monitoring and control activities to ensure entrepreneurship performance in sustaining economic development in Akwa Ibom State?
- Significance of the Study
The study will be significant in the following ways:
The study will be beneficial to entrepreneurs in Akwa Ibom as the findings of the research will help them to pay special attention to those factors which are capable of affecting their enterprise negatively.
They study will also contribute to the existing knowledge on entrepreneurship development.
The study will also serve as a good reference material to students undertaking similar research.
- Scope of the Study
This research work focused on the impact of business environment on entrepreneurship in Akwa Ibom State, using selected enterprise in the state as a case study.
- Limitations of the Study
The study was limited by some factors which include:
- The Factor: The factor led to the reduction in the size of the sample used for the study, due to the fact that the researcher had less than three months to complete the research.
- Financial Factor: The study was also limited by financial factor. The inadequate funds at the disposal of the researcher affected the way data was collected since the researcher has to travel for the distribution of questionnaire.
- Material Factor: Material factors also limited the study. The researcher had no written down material to use for the study, but had to browse the internet, ask friends some questions, brain storm many idea as possible and also visited the library to gain more knowledge for the completion of the research.
- Organization of the Study
This study was organized into five chapters. Chapter one introduced the work and was sub-divided into background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, limitations of the study and definition of terms.
Chapter two reviewed literature relevant to the study, chapter three was on research methodology, chapter five give the summary of findings, conclusion and recommendation made by the researchers.
- Definition of Terms
