Entrepreneurial and management practices of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in construction industry in the Province of Iloilo

Abstract

This descriptive survey research was done to determine the managerial and entrepreneurial practices of small and medium enterprise (SME) in construction industry in province of Iloilo in relation to knowledge in strategic, marketing, business, financial plan and training and networking as well as access to marketing and financing facilities and training and networking facilities. The data were provided by entrepreneurs and engineers. The statistical tools used were frequency, percentage, mean and Pearson r. The null hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance.

The findings showed predominance of male, young entrepreneurs who had few years experience and business affiliated. The engineers were mostly male and young affiliated professionally. The enterprise were basically single proprietorship with less than PhP 1.5 M capitalization. There was good knowledge of entrepreneurs in strategic and business plans but fair in marketing and financial plan. They also had fair knowledge in training and networking. The engineers had surprisingly fair knowledge in engineering construction technology. The level of access of entrepreneurs to marketing and financial facilities as well as in training and networking was fair. The engineers in SME in construction industry had also fair access to engineering construction technology. While the overall management practices of the entrepreneurs in SMEs in construction industry was fair, their entrepreneurship practices were good. The entrepreneurs knowledge in strategic, business and financial plans as well as in training and networking were significantly associated with their management practices and highly significantly correlated with their entrepreneurial practices. On the other hand, knowledge and access of engineers’ to engineering construction technology and facilities did not significantly correlate with their management and entrepreneurial practices.

From the results the researcher concluded that good knowledge in strategic, business and financial plans are requisites to sound management and entrepreneurship practices. Furthermore good access to marketing and financial facilities and resources would assure entrepreneurial success. Although knowledge and access in engineering construction technology and facilities, respectively did not show any significant influence on management and entrepreneurial practices, still it is important that the engineers should have these when they become entrepreneurs.

Based on the findings, the researcher recommends, update of knowledge in marketing plan for entrepreneurs. There is likewise, a need for the engineers to update their knowledge in engineering construction technology considering that the findings show they have only fair knowledge on this. It is further recommended that entrepreneurs practice integration of knowledge in strategic, business, marketing, and financial planning to their management and entrepreneurial practices in the construction industry.