13th Annual International Management Conference Proceeding

Key to Figure
A - More capital investments; B - Increase in profits; C - New products services; D - Increase in sales; E -
New product designs; F - Quality improvement; G - New business activities; H - Good customer service; I -
Accounting system/record keeping; J - Improvement in management style; K - Business planning/budgeting;
L - Employment of qualified staff; M - Business expansion; N - Market research; O - Cost reduction
through staff reduction.
The percentage shown in the table for each business improvement was calculated based on the 30
respondents who were interviewed.
Other Factors which Affected Business Performance and Growth
The respondents identified several other factors (Table 3) besides training, which affected their business in
terms of improvements. The other factors identified were personal/business experience (37%); personal
efforts and drive (27%); acquisition of additional skills (23%); business problems/challenges (20%); family
support and assistance (17%); established customer base and available market/business opportunities
(13%); credit acquisition (10%); provision of quality products/services and personal creativity (7%). Those
who never made any significant business improvements to their business cited economic instability and
competition from well-established businesses, as the main factors that affected their business performance.
Factor No. of Respondents Score in Percentage
Personal/business experience 11 37%
Personal commitment and drive 8 27%
Other training programmes 7 23%
Business problems/challenges 6 20%
Family support/assistance 5 17%
Established customer base 5 17%
Market/business opportunities 4 13%
Credit acquisition 3 10%
Quality product/service 2 7%
One’s own creativity 2 7%
Table 3: Other Factors that contributed to the Improvements and Growth of the Enterprises
Under the other factors, which affected performance improvements in their businesses, the respondents were
also asked to state the critical problems/challenges, which affected their business performance and growth
(Table 4). The problems/challenges cited were inadequate capital (80%) as a major problem; competition
(50%); inadequate market opportunities (23%); economic instability (23%); inaccessibility to modern
technology and bad debts (17%); high operational costs (7%) and, poor credit and stock control (3%).
Problem No. of Respondents Score in Percentage
Inadequate capital 24 80%
Competition 15 50%
Inadequate market 7 23%
Economic instability 7 23%
Inaccessibility to modern technology 5 17%
Bad debts 5 17%
High operational costs 2 7%
Poor credit and stock control 1 3%
Table 4: Problems/Challenges, which affected Business Performance
From the analysis, it can be said that business performance cannot be wholly attributed to one single factor.
As the study findings revealed, no respondent was able to distinguish between business improvements made
as a result of the training alone and those made as a result of other factors. This finding also confirms a
contention by Odiorne (1970), that a major limitation on evaluating training programmes is the existence of
other factors, which may have occurred at the same time with the training. So business improvements made
cannot be ascribed to the training programme alone unless one is certain that no such other factors
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