BUSINESS OPERATOR-BASED STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVINGTHEUTILIZATION OF E-MARKETING OPERATIONS IN SMALLANDMEDIUMENTERPRISES IN SOUTH-EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine strategies considered effective for improving the utilizationof e-marketing operations in small and medium scale enterprises in South-East, Nigeria. One researchquestionguided the study, and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive surveyresearch design was adopted. The study was carried out in the five states in South-East, Nigeria. Thepopulation of the study was 13,035 registered small and medium scale enterprises in the South-East. A9-itemquestionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire was tested for validity and to determinethereliability, a pilot study was carried out. Test on the data collected using Cronbach alpha reliabilitymethodyielded reliability coefficients of 0.61. The data from the study were analyzed using descriptive statisticsofmean and standard deviation. The mean ratings were used to answer the one research question while standarddeviation was used to determine the closeness of the respondents’ mean ratings. t-Test statistics was usedtotest the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that operator-based strategiesareconsidered effective for improving the utilization of e-marketing operations in small and mediumscaleenterprises in South-East, Nigeria. Based on these findings, it was concluded that SMEs can adopt operator-based strategies to improve the utilization of e-marketing operations in South-East, Nigeria. The researcherrecommended that SME operators should improve their knowledge and skills of InformationandCommunication Technology for e-marketing operations by attending conferences and seminar whereutilization of ICT in business is discussed