Title: Barriers to SMEs participation in public procurement in Nigeria: some preliminary results

Authors: Temidayo O. Akenroye; Oluseyi Aju

Addresses: National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, Manchester M1 4BT, UK ' Department of Business Administration, Kogi State University, P.M.B 1008, Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract: The aim of this study is to develop an instrument with which to measure the perception of barriers facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in public procurement, based on a sample of 120 SMEs in Nigeria. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), four factors were extracted, namely; information obscurity, incapability, ignorance of procedures and arduous and stringent process. Reliability and item analysis offers support for the internal consistency and the discriminatory power of items that represent the factors. Above all, it was found that information obscurity and incapability have the highest mean scores, signifying that these factors are perceived to be the foremost barriers facing SMEs in public procurement. A key result of this study is that it generates explanatory theories on SME barriers to public procurement and offers factorial hypotheses in a form suitable for subsequent testing.

Keywords: public procurement; Nigeria; entrepreneurship; SMEs; procurement barriers; procurement access; small and medium-sized enterprises.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2013.059894

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2013 Vol.17 No.4/5/6, pp.314 - 328

Received: 26 Sep 2012
Accepted: 10 Oct 2013
Published online: 30 Apr 2014 *

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