Effect of Ethical Practices on the Corporate Image of SMEs in Nigeria: A Survey of Selected Firms in IMO State
Keywords:
attractiveness,, corporate reputation, ethical practice,, loyalty, integrity, SMEs =================Abstract
his paper examines the effect ethical practices has on the corporate image of SMEs in Nigeria with selected firms in Imo state. The researchers raised four objective, research questions and hypotheses to guide to the study. A five point likert scale questionnaire was used to obtain relevant information from 151 respondents selected from a population of 173 personnel of the three firms under study. The researcher adopted non parametric kruskawallis test using the 16.0 version of Minitab statistical software (MSS) for testing of hypotheses. The output showed a p-value of 0.001, 0.001 and 0.000 for hypotheses one two and three respectively. Among the
major findings includes that ethical practices have significant impact on the image of small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria. The study concludes that ethical practices impact significantly on the attractiveness of Nigerian SMEs. The researchers recommend that Nigerian SMEs should make ethical orientation an integral aspect of employees training and development programme.
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