INFLUENCE OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ON MICRO ENTERPRISES PERFORMANCE: SURVEY OF MICRO ENTERPRISES IN ELDAMA RAVINE SUB COUNTY, BARINGO COUNTY

Abstract

Micro Enterprises play a significant role of job creation, poverty alleviation and economic development of many countries worldwide. Business Development Services are supposed to provide an array of business services such astraining, consultancy, marketing, information, business linkage, promotion and transfer of technology, among others; entrepreneurs at various stages of their business development journey. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of business development services on micro enterprises performance in Kenya. Specifically, this study examined the influence of Training services, Business mentorship, Market access information and Business linkages on Performance of Micro Enterprise. A descriptive research design was adopted to collect and analyze data. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires on a target population of 89 micro enterprises registered with Micro Enterprises Support Programme Trust in Eldama Ravine Sub County of Baringo County, and a random sample of 53 businesses were selected. Piloting for reliability and validity of the data collection instrument was carried out with 9 of the target micro enterprises who were excluded in the final data collection and analysis. The reliability had a Cronbach Alpha of 0.826 and within a threshold of 0.7 that was considered. Data collected was analyzed and presented in descriptive and inferential statistics. Business linkages had statistically significant relationship with micro enterprise performance (β=0.357, p=0.074), while the other three independent variables had no statically significance relationship with micro enterprise performance training services (β=0.221, p=0.866), business mentorship (β=0.194 p=0.786)market access information (β= 0.319, p=0.173).This was evidenced by the p-value of p>0.05. Therefore, this research recommends a similar study be done within a different design to affirm these results. Nevertheless, the findings lead to the recommendation that for order micro enterprises to perform better, emphasis should be made on providing business linkages more than other business development services.