| dc.description.abstract | This study sought to establish factors influencing survival of fish based small and medium enterprises. Small business development is one approach being employed by many states in the world to realise the first Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Small businesses contribute to economic growth, poverty reduction, and enhancement of entrepreneurs' standards of living. This study sought to address the following objectives; examine influence of capital access, management skills and experience, m~rketing strategies and entrepreneurial training on survival of fish-based SMEs. Scholars have argued that a dynamic and growing small and medium enterprise sector can contribute to the achievement of a wide range of development objectives, including: the attainment of income distribution and poverty creation of employment provision of the seedbed of industrialization savings mobilization and production of goods and services that meet the basic needs of the poor. Entrepreneurship Monitor Project, an international comparative study assessing entrepreneurship's importance to economies worldwide concluded that the birth of new SMEs is almost directly proportional with the death of many. This study used a descriptive survey design. The target population of the study comprised of all the small and medium sized entrepreneurs along beaches in Nyatike District which encompasses 27 beaches with about 50 entrepreneurs each totalling to 1350. The entrepreneurs were systematically sampled for the study.
A structured questionnaire was pretested for validity and reliability which was then administered to 302 entrepreneurs to collect primary quantitative and qualitative data. The data was analysed using SPSS' descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (Chi-Square tests) and was mainly presented using tables. The findings of the study showed that fish based SMEs in Nyatike are faced by survival challenges especially key entrepreneurial elements that are necessary for enterprise profitability, survival and eventual growth. The main factors that influence these fish based SME survival are access to capital requirements with Chi-Square value of 72.912, entrepreneurial training 36.270, Marketing strategies 69.168 and finally Management experience 54.114 respectively. The main recommendation of the study is that Government and non - government sector players should consider formulating policies and strategies aimed at streamlining the fishery sector, particularly the fish trade policy, and ensure provision of critical business development services in order to protect small and medium sized fish based SMEs including fishermen, fish processors and small scale traders from exploitation while enhancing their economic productivity.
These findings are expected to be useful to the Ministry of Fisheries Development and that of Trade and Commerce in Policy formulation and implementation. It is expected that the study will also help improve the project practices as well as to influence strategies for meaningfully investing in the fish based enterprises and the SME sector in general. These findings have also added to the existing body of knowledge regarding growth and expansion of the fish based entrepreneurship and the overall concept of Entrepreneurship and economic development. | en_US |
