Özet:

Environmental scanning plays a critical role in ensuring that the performance of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) is improved and therefore serves as a good avenue for organisational sustainability. Earlier studies have focused on the challenges faced by SMEs Owners, managers, and employees but this study will concentrate on environmental scanning as they affect market shares of SMEs in Lagos State Nigeria. Due to a poor understanding of the factors that play out in the organisation, SMEs have experienced a decline in market share as they are unable to meet expected benchmarks; hence this paper assessed the effect of environmental scanning on the market share of selected SMEs in Lagos State, Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of this study consist of the owner/managers of SMEs located in Lagos State. The population was given as 8,396 sources provided by SMEDAN in conjunction with the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The sample of the study was determined from the population using the research advisors sampling table resulting in 370 also a 30% provision was made to take care of such discrepancies, making a total of 481. A stratified and simple random sampling technique was employed, a well-structured and adapted questionnaire was administered to the respondents. ’Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients ranged from 0.718 and 0.910. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result of simple linear regression revealed that that environmental scanning has significant effect on market share (β = 0.513, t = 10.782, R2 = 0.230, p < 0.05). The study recommends that the management team of the selected SMEs should ensure they adopt and implement proper environmental scanning to increase their market share. Also, the study recommends that SMEs should identify with their employees to a great extent so as to boost and improve creativity within the organisation.

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