INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ADOPTED BY SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES FOR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS OPERATIONS IN EBONYI STATE

The study was carried out to ascertain information storage and retrieval management practices adopted by small and medium scale enterprises for successful business operations in Ebonyi State. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 2,433 small and medium scale enterprises in Ebonyi State, whose businesses were registered with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria. The sample size of 344 small and medium scale enterprises was used for the study. A structured questionnaire containing 29 items entitled “Information Storage and Retrieval Management Practices Adopted by Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (ISRMPASEQ)” was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three (3) experts. The Cronbach Alpha Reliability coefficient was 0.92. Three hundred and forty four (344) copies of instrument were distributed, while 321 copies representing 93% were successfully retrieved from the respondents. Mean and Standard Deviation (SD) were used for finding answers to the research questions. The null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using t-test statistical tool. The findings showed that information storage and retrieval management practices adopted by small and medium scale enterprises for successful business operations in Ebonyi State are filing of documents, saving in diskette, recording in a register, saving in a computer hard disc, storing in a file cabinet, saving in a tape recorder, recording in business diary and storing in flash drive are the information storage practices is adopted by small and medium scale enterprises for successful business operations and printing from diskette, printing from computer hard disk, checking filed document, reading of previous minutes, reading newspapers, magazine among others, checking file cabinet, and printing from flash drive are information retrieval practices adopted by small and medium scale enterprises. The hypotheses tested showed that years of experiences and location of small and medium scale enterprises operators did not differs significantly in their mean responses on information storage and retrieval management practices management adopted by small and medium enterprise in Ebonyi State. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended, among others, that small and medium scale enterprises owners should embark on computer training on the application of information storage management practices in order to be able to store their information in the cloud.