Gender, Age, Religious Affiliation and Qualifications Differences to Innovative Culture of Small and Medium-Scale Owners in SouthWest, Nigeria

Abstract

This research examined the gender, age, religious affiliations and highest qualification differences to the innovative culture of Small and Medium-Scale Enterprise (SME) owners in south-west Nigeria. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Innovativeness Scale (IS) was used as the instrument for data collection. Statistical methods of analysis used for testing the formulated hypotheses were simple percentage, independent t-test and ANOVA at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there were significant differences in the innovative culture of SME based on age and highest qualification while no significant differences existed in the innovative culture of SME based on gender and religious affiliations of business owners. It was recommended among others that more significant steps to upgrade SME owners competencies towards building and maintaining the innovative capacity of businesses are needed to prevent the demographically induced decline in innovation activity from compromising growth and prosperity. SME owners should always embark on training and workshop that would add value to their innovative potentials.