Corporate Governance Principles and Organizational Goals Attainment of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study is a descriptive survey designed to have some understanding on
corporate governance and to relate such understanding to private SME
organizational goal attainment in Rivers State of Nigeria. This study is structured such that the board members of SMEs and CEOs constitute the participants. Four research questions and three null hypotheses were raised to examine the adoption of corporate governance principles (CGP) by SME boards towards their organizational goal attainment (OGA) and the relationship between the two variables. The study is guided by the theory on Hegemony in addition to a plethora of self-based theories on CGP and CGA. Nine SMEs with 75 respondents were selected from population of SMEs in Rivers State for the study. Two set of questionnaires were each developed for CGP and OGA respectively in addition to personal interviews, observations and document review. The Stratified sampling techniques was adopted to select the nine sampled SME organizations. Results of the study reveal a state of general satisfaction among board members on CGP and their CGA. The CEOs however rejected their CGP as unsatisfactory and accepted their OGA. The study also revealed a significant relationship between CGP and OGA as viewed by both the boards and CEOs.