An Empirical Assessment of Factors Hindering Market Orientation in Small and Medium Enterprise Computer Retailers in South Africa

Despite the significant contribution to socioeconomic development by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), their failure rate is very high in South Africa. Adoption and implementation of market orientation has been identified by various scholars as a means to mitigate SME failure in the highly competitive environments they operate in. This study investigated the factors hindering market orientation in SME computer retailers in King Williams Town and East London, South Africa. The objective of the study was to investigate various factors hindering market orientation in SME computer retailing outlets. A quantitative research design was used in conducting this study. Simple random sampling was used to select a sample of 104 from the sample frame of 141 registered SME computer retailers. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The descriptive statistics, which include Chi-square test, Pearson correlation and the t-test were used to analyze data. The findings of this research found that there are factors influencing market orientation in SME computer retailers, such as owner/manager involvement. These enterprises contribute to the national GDP and almost sixty percent (60%) of employment in the private sector in South Africa. Government agencies such as Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and Development Corporations can establish practical market orientation training opportunities for managers.