Customer Relationship Orientation and Business Resilience: A Study of SMEs in Ebonyi State

The sweeping changes in the Nigerian economy and the economic policies of the state government are contributing to turbulence and dynamism in the business environment of Ebonyi State. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between customer relationship orientation and business resilience with alignment to the relationship marketing theory and dynamic capability theory which are rarely used in literature. Data was collected using structured questionnaire. 261 questionnaires were collected, of which 245 responses were validated after data cleaning. Multiple regression through SPSS v25 software was used to analyze the proposed hypotheses with the results showing customer commitment, customer communication, customer responsiveness, and customer knowledge management as significant predictors of business resilience. The implication is that SMEs that focus on effective relationship with customers are more likely to be resilient in a challenging business economy. The study recommends capacity-building programs that emphasize on customer orientation and relationship marketing as key to improving business performance and surviving challenging business environment.