CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Entrepreneurship is a force that drives or pushes competitive advantage. Entrepreneurship is perceived as a major competency creativity and innovation. Entrepreneurship has so far been acknowledged as being of chief and paramount importance for the manufacturing companies in Nigeria and other countries and also for the economy in every country. The entrepreneurial process which includes all the functions, activities, and actions together with the perception of opportunities and creation of organizations to pursue them has produced an understandable academic interest. On the other hand Entrepreneurs in manufacturing companies and in all of the organization has a paramount role to play, especially when it comes to the success and growth of organization, Society and country.

To further explain entrepreneurship; people need one another to supply their respective goods and services. Entrepreneurship encourages optimal societal growth, more specialized roles for individuals, etc. It is difficult for people to attain their needs singlehandedly without the assistance of fellow individuals. For instance, manufacturers in different levels can produce raw products like rice, fowls, vegetables and wheat, for their own needs. Howbeit, most of them cannot produce clothes, eye glasses or medicines. Also, a lawyer can provide valuable services but he needs other products and services like electricity, transportation, food and house. Thus, needing the goods or services is an economic situation. Therefore, the abilities of individuals to supply, produce, create, and receive or opportunity-making in proper time and place or by the needed persons and prices are called entrepreneurship.

Quite a good number of researchers have looked into and researched on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and organizational performance, specifically, manufacturing companies. Entrepreneurial orientation has its grounds in strategy-making process literature and it has transcended as a core construct within the strategic management and entrepreneurship literatures and articles. Entrepreneurial orientation to define the mindset of manufacturing firms specifically engaged in chasing new ventures provides a useful structure or basis for researching entrepreneurial activity. In recent times, entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has received reasonable amount of conceptual and empirical attention, representing one of the few sides in entrepreneurship study where an increasing and successful body of knowledge is developing.

The interesting fact of entrepreneurship orientation has become center, major concentration of the entrepreneurship literature and strategic management, over the years.  The entrepreneurship orientation construct has received reasonable attention from a large number of researchers, though there are some controversies in its dimensions. The previous years, precisely, last two decades can attest to the tremendous growth in the area of entrepreneurship orientation -Performance relationship and adoption of contingency framework to entrepreneurship orientation -performance relationship, where it has been noted that the organizational environment and industrial turbulence affects the entrepreneurship orientation -Performance correlation, Covin, 2005. Chell, 1991 discovered that there is an increase in the number of entrepreneurship orientation -Performance relationship studies in Nigeria and the world at large. Research on entrepreneurship orientation is rapidly maximizing and broadening, securing significant traction in scholarly outlets beyond only entrepreneurship domain. Therefore, entrepreneurship orientation has all it takes to stand in for a promising area for building a body of needed knowledge about entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurial Orientation is therefore perceived to be a higher order construct with multidimensional measure of firm level entrepreneurship, enveloping innovativeness, pro-activeness, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy. entrepreneurship orientation is seen as the strategy- making processes that render organizations with a framework for entrepreneurial decisions and actions that is; it portrays the process, activities and decision-making styles managers use to act entrepreneurially. It can be seen as a set of psychological traits, values and attitudes strongly correlated with a motivation to participate in entrepreneurial activities.

STATEMENT OF THENGENERAL PROBLEM

The Nigeria national economy is characterized by several challenges which have constituted sleepless night to developmental oriented governance by government at all levels. The most disturbing of all in the country is the menace of unemployment. Nigeria is faced with the major challenge of curbing increase in crime rate, unprecedented increase in prostitution, high mortality rate, and political thurggery among others which are traceable to youth unemployment or under employment (Safiriyu and Njogo, 2012). More so, dwindling economic growth and development attributable to insufficient number of economic activities call for people to engage in entrepreneurship in the form of small and medium scale enterprises especially at such time as this which on the long run will translate to improve and sustainable economic growth and development otherwise, the country will suffer relegation in the committee of nations; this can only be made possible by adequate entrepreneurship orientation at all levels of government and the private sector. There is need to embark on the study to investigate the effect of entrepreneurship orientation on the economy most especially the manufacturing sector of Nigeria.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 The major aim of the study is to examine the effect of entrepreneurship orientation on selected manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Other specific objectives of the study include;

1. To examine the level of entrepreneurship orientation in Nigeria manufacturing sector.
2. To assess the benefits of adequate entrepreneurship orientation to youth and national development.
3. To determine the relationship between entrepreneurship orientation and economic development.
4. To examine the influence of entrepreneurship orientation on small and medium scale enterprises.
5. To recommend ways of improving entrepreneurship orientation in Nigerian manufacturing sector.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What is the level of entrepreneurship orientation in Nigerian manufacturing sector?
2. What are the benefits of adequate entrepreneurship orientation to youth and national development?
3. What is the relationship between entrepreneurship orientation and economic development?
4. What is the influence of entrepreneurship orientation on small and medium scale enterprises?
5. What are the ways of improving entrepreneurship orientation in Nigerian manufacturing sector?

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

H0: There is no significant relationship between entrepreneurship orientation and economic development

H1: There is a significant relationship between entrepreneurship orientation and economic development

H0: Effective entrepreneurship orientation does not influence productivity in Nigeria manufacturing companies.

H1: Effective entrepreneurship orientation influences productivity in Nigeria manufacturing companies.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study would be of immense importance to government at all levels, the most importantly Nigeria’s manufacturing sector as it would reveal the effect of entrepreneurship orientation on the manufacturing sector. The study would also benefit students, researchers and scholars who are interested in developing further studies on the subject matter.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study is restricted to the effects of entrepreneurship orientation on selected manufacturing industries in Nigeria using the Agbara industrial estate, Ogun state as a case study.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: The capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit. 

ORIENTATION: The particular things that a person prefers, believes, thinks, or usually does in business

MANUFACTURING: The process of converting raw materials, components, or parts into finished goods that meet a customer's expectations or specifications. 

DEVELOPMENT: The act or process of growing or causing something to grow or become larger or more advanced.

PRODUCTION: Production is a process of workers combining various material inputs and immaterial inputs (plans, know-how) in order to make something for consumption (the output).

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