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The study investigated how marketing of non-financial services of microfinance institutions impacted the performance of small enterprises in Southwest, Nigeria. The objectives examined the impact of marketing of non-financial services offered on organizational performance; and on kinds of the business practices. Likable variables were examined with the theoretical models of building customer relationship. The findings revealed that marketing of non-financial services had positive impact on organizational performance; while significant impact was revealed among various kinds of business practices. The study recommended marketing of non-financial services, and monitoring the effectiveness of the services in relations to the performance of MSMEs.
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INTRODUCTION
There is no doubting the contributions of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to the economic growth and sustainable development of Nigeria (CBN, 2004). Apart from granting of loans and other credit facilities by microfinance institutions to MSMEs, the institutions still have and offer other crucial and valuable services; which, if properly marketed to MSMEs being served will enhance greater performance to the betterment of the country' economy. There have been lots of contentions in literature on the significant of the non-financial services offered by the micro finance institutions. It is not uncommon to find in many microfinance programmes, non-financial services such as advisory services, managerial and technical training, weekly meetings and pre-loan training; to mention only a few rendered as support services to MSMEs. However, these services are poorly provided in Nigeria; as they are mostly very costly to deliver (McKernan, 2002), yet many microfinance programmes consider them an integral part of the success of their programmes. Though the contribution of such non-financial services is not in doubt, the extent of the contributions is yet to be ascertained in Nigeria. Hence, this is the crux of this study; with the objectives (i) to examine the impact of marketed non-financial services of microfinance institutions on organizational performance of micro, small and medium enterprises in Nigeria, and (ii) to investigate the effects of marketed non-financial services of microfinance institutions among various kinds of business practices in Nigeria.
Review of Related Literature
Concepts of Service Marketing
Services, according to Sisodia (2013) include all economic activities whose output is not a physical product or construction, but is generally consumed at the time...