Browsing by Author "Adiga Bernard Ngobi"

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    Marketing Innovation, Networking Capability, ICT Adoption, and Competitiveness of SMEs. The Case of Small and Medium Enterprises in Arua City.
    (Makerere University Business School, 2023-11-14) Adiga Bernard Ngobi
    The rapid technological change and market globalization have a great impact on the creation of new possibilities for reinforcing the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The SMEs in Arua city are competitively disadvantaged; one in four of them do not use any media-based promotion; logistical services are extremely costly, do not embrace flexible payment options, fail to collaborate with competitors, and fail to use ICT to manage their transactions. This study was purposed to explore the relationship between marketing innovation, networking capabilities, Information and Communication Technology adoption, and competitiveness of small and medium enterprises in Arua city. The researcher issued 296 questionnaires to the 148 small and medium enterprises sampled, and 210 were returned from 105 small and medium enterprises. This constituted 70.9% response rate, which is a good representation of the whole population as postulated by Field (2006). Reliability test of the tools showed that all variables under study were reliable with Cronbach’s alpha statistic above 0.70, the threshold value suggested by Nunnally (1978). The findings of the correlation analysis showed a positive and significant relationship between marketing innovation and competitiveness. It also indicated a positive relationship between network capabilities, Information and Communication Technology adoption, and competitiveness, implying that a change in marketing innovation, network capabilities, and Information and Communication Technology adoption is associated directly with the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises in Arua city. The regression analysis showed that marketing innovation, networking capabilities, and Information and Communication Technology adoption had a significant and positive influence on competitiveness. The researcher recommended that management should put more emphasis on marketing innovation since it has more predictive power on SME competitiveness than networking capabilities and ICT adoption. This could be done by creating brand awareness, improving distribution networks, offering attractive prices, and enhancing communication strategies. Management should also improve their networking capabilities by developing their collaboration, interpersonal relations, and partner knowledge. Lastly, the SME`s technological, organizational, and environmental contexts should be developed in order to enhance their ICT adoption capabilities to achieve better competitiveness.