Green entrepreneurship and performance of small and medium enterprises in North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

Many countries worldwide make efforts to decrease environmental degradation and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engage in such business operations. However, considering the Nigerian context, evidence on their impact is scarce. Therefore, this paper investigates the effect of green entrepreneurship on the performance of SMEs in North-Central Nigeria federal territory. A pre-test was conducted, and a descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire was used. The study examined 1,233 consenting randomly chosen respondents from six states and Abuja City in North-Central Nigeria. Simple linear regression was used to test the hypotheses. The findings demonstrated that green entrepreneurship can decrease the negative impacts of business activities on the environment and also ensure profitability. Moreover, green entrepreneurial innovative production and green entrepreneurial inclination significantly impact competitive edge (β = 0.806, t-value= 49.648, P = 0.000 < 0.05) and customer spending (β= 0.976, t-value= 51.315, P = 0.000 < 0.05), respectively. The study offers useful public information and experimental confirmation of environmental sustainability engaged in viable business activities.