CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCULSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTION FOR

FURTHER STUDIES

5.1 SUMMARY

The study examined the relationship between Strategic planning and Business growth of small

and medium scale firms in Rivers State. The study measured business growth by using sales

volume and physical expansion while internal analysis and external analysis were adopted as the

dimensions of strategic planning. The study adopted quasi-experimental research design.

Structured questionnaire was the research instrument used in collecting relevant data. The study

sampled seventy three employees of five selected small and medium scale firms in Rivers Port

Harcourt using simple random sampling techniques. Seventy three questionnaire were

administered to the respondents while Sixty seven questionnaire were the valid questionnaire

returned, forming the basis of data analysis. Spearman Rank Correlation coefficient was used to

test the hypotheses formulated and the estimation was facilitated by Statistical Package for Social

Sciences (SPSS) 21.0 version. Findings emanating from the study are summarised as follow:

There is a strong and positive significant relationship between internal analysis and sales volume

of small medium scales firms in Rivers State.

There is a strong and positive significant relationship between internal analysis and physical

expansion of small and medium scale firms in Rivers State.

There is a strong and positive significant relationship between external analysis and sales volume

of small and medium scale firms in Rivers State.

There is a strong and positive significant relationship between external analysis and physical

expansion of small and medium scale firms in Rivers State.

5.2 CONCLUSION

Strategic planning can be considered important in driving small firm growth. This study has

added to the knowledge about the relationship between strategic planning and business

growth with insights on the importance of strategic planning elements, and has given

recommendations for strategic planning-induced growth. Identifying their internal and

external analysis, incorporating the elements of internationalization and networking in the

firm, focusing on growth, profit, and market, performing analyses of market and competition,

precisely formulating generic business strategies, and achieving company-wide support for

strategies can all be beneficial for the growth of small and medium firms.

5.3 RECOMMENDATION

Drawing from the findings, the following recommendations were put forward by the

researcher:

1. Management of small and medium scale firms should identify their strength in order

to have competitive advantage over their competitors and also identify and understand

their weaknesses to enable them come up with effective solutions in the strategic plan.

2. Small and medium scale firms should be able to seize any opportunities that will

generate more profit and help in the growth of their business.

3. Management of small and medium scale firms should seek ways to attract customers

to patronise them in order to increase their sales volume and also make their products

affordable and their products should be worth the price.

4. Small and medium scale firms should be able to identify when more staffs should be

employed and also try to introduce new products to help the physical expansion of a

business.
5.4 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES

1. The study was conducted in Port Harcourt. Similar study should be conducted in other

geographical locations to confirm whether the result would be similar.

2. The study is limited to small and medium scale firms in Port Harcourt. Future studies

should duplicate same in other sectors like health sector, banking sector, educational

sector, and large scale firms and so on.

3. The study only employed questionnaire which is primary source of data. Meanwhile,

the result would have probably been different or more investigative, if consideration

was made to conduct interview to augment the study findings. Future studies should

take this into consideration.

4. Also, the study should make use of other variables as the dimension strategic planning

other than the variables used in this study.

5. The study should make use of other variables to measure business growth other than

the variables used in this study.