Technology and Higher Education: What Works and what is the Future?

is statistically significant at 5 percent level of significance. This implies that Creativity has a statistically significant effect on the Business Success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in selected States in North Central, Nigeria

Self-confidence (SFC) has a negative effect on the Business success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in North Central, Nigeria (SSM) and the effect is not statistically significant (p >0.05) and in also not in line with a priori expectation. This means that a unit increases in Self-confidence (SFC) will cause a corresponding decrease in the Business Success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in selected States in North Central, Nigeria (SM) by a margin of 26.1 percent. Using the probability value of the estimate, we accept the null hypothesis, that is, we accept that the estimate b2 is not statistically significant at 5 percent level of significance. This implies that Self-confidence has no statistically significant effect on the Business Success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in selected States in North Central, Nigeria This finding is contrary to that of Kolvereid (1996) who found that businesses that were run by entrepreneurs with prior entrepreneurial experience and creativity scored significantly higher success levels than those without such skills. The negative effect obtained in the current study could be attributed to differences in business climate which implies that beyond self confidence, so many factors could alter the success of small and medium scale enterprises and cause a negative effect to manifest in the face of entrepreneurial and enterprise characteristics. As shown in Table 7, Firm size (FMS) has a positive effect on the Business success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in North Central, Nigeria (SSM) and the effect is statistically significant (p <0.05) and in line with a priori expectation This means that a unit increases in Firm size (FMS) will cause a corresponding increase in the Business Success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in selected States in North Central, Nigeria (SM) by a margin of 42.1 percent. Using the probability value of the estimate, we reject the null hypothesis, that is, we accept that the estimate b3 is statistically significant at 5 percent level of significance. This implies that Firm size has a statistically significant effect on the Business Success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in selected States in North Central, Nigeria. This is in line with the findings of McMahon (2001) who found that enterprise size had a significant effect success of small and medium enterprises.

Profitability (PRF) has a positive effect on the Business success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in North Central Nigeria (SSM) and the effect is statistically significant (p <0.05) and in line with a priori expectation This means that a unit increases in Profitability (PRF) will cause a corresponding increase in the Business Success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in selected States in North Central, Nigeria (SM) by a margin of 49.8 percent. Using the probability value of the estimate, we reject the null hypothesis, that is, we accept that the estimate b4 is statistically significant at 5 percent level of significance. This implies that profitability has a statistically significant effect on the Business Success of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in selected States in North Central, Nigeria Islam, Khan, Obaidullah and Alam (2011), found similar result.

IV Conclusion and Recommendations

The study examined the effect of entrepreneur and firm characteristics on the Business success of small and medium scale enterprises in selected States in North Central, Nigeria The researcher examined the variables of the research construct namely entrepreneur and firm characteristics to determine if they influence the success of the small and medium scale enterprises in the study areas. The findings indicates that all the variables except self confidence have positive and significant effect on the Business success of small and medium scale enterprises in the study area. This implies that owners of small and medium scale enterprises must ensure that they become creative in the bid to carrying out their business activities. Size of business also determines success but it has to be in conjunction with being creative. Small-business owners must have a creative approach towards their products or services, be willing to be personally involved in it, be willing to stick with the business, be able to define the market clearly and pay attention to details.

Also, the result of the study indicates that firm specific attributes such as profitability is a sign of a successful business and hence, management of the small and medium scale enterprises should ensure that all the strategies are put in place to boost the profit of the enterprise. Successful firms were likely to spend more time communicating with partners, customers, suppliers, employees. The proportion of SMEs led by an entrepreneurial team was high among successful SMEs and low among failed SMEs, so fostering the formation of entrepreneurial teams in starting up businesses is recommended. It is suggested that future researchers should increase the sample size by studying all the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the whole of North Central States of Nigeria