Social Entrepreneurship and the Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprise in South East Nigeria

This study examined social entrepreneurship and the performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprise in South East Nigeria. The study was guided by the following specific objectives; to examine the influence of social value creation on Operational efficiency of small and medium scale enterprises enterprise in south east Nigeria, evaluate the effect of Community engagement on Business growth of small and medium scale enterprises enterprise in south east Nigeria and to ascertain the effect of Ethical practices on Market share of small and medium scale enterprises enterprise in south east Nigeria. The researcher employed survey research design. The population of the study is one thousand five hundred and seven (1507), while the sample size of 306 was drawn, using Fruend and Williams statistical tool. Hypotheses were tested using Ordinal Least square with t-statistics estimation. Based on the result, the study found out that social value creation has positive and significant effect on operational efficiency of small and medium scale enterprises enterprise in south east Nigeria. This is confirmed with (t-cal = 28.784, p-value = 0.000, 0.05%). Community engagement positive and significant effect on business growth of small and medium scale enterprises enterprise in south east Nigeria. This is confirmed with (t-cal = 15.207, p-value = 0.000, 0.05%). Ethical practices positive and significant effect on Market share of small and medium scale enterprises enterprise in south east Nigeria. This is confirmed with (t-cal = 32.516, p-value = 0.000, 0.05%). From the above findings, small and medium scale enterprises should bring in new and emerging technologies to help improve productivity of SMEs globally.