Abstract:
One important aspect of Small and medium-sized enterprises is that
they lack sufficient internal skills and experience to handle the challenges that
negatively affect their development, which, therefore, necessitates their
adoption of external business development services. In line with this necessity,
the present study assessed the influence of SME managers’ personal
characteristics on the adoption of business development services in the Cape
Coast Metropolis. Employing the quantitative research approach, explanatory
research design, and cross-sectional survey design, 125 completed and valid
questionnaires were retrieved from a population of 160 SME managers who
have accessed business development services from the National Board for
Small Scale Industries in the Cape Coast Metropolis. A census was employed
in selecting samples for the study. A structured questionnaire was used for
data collection and it was self-administered. IBM SPSS Statistics Software for
Windows, version 23 was the software employed for data analysis. The
analytical tools were mean, standard deviation, one-sample t-test,
independent-samples t-test, and regression analysis. Consistent with
expectations, the study found that personal characteristics of SME managers,
namely age, sex, work experience and education jointly and independently
influenced the adoption of business development services, confirming the
assumptions of the Upper Echelons Theory.
