Transitioning MSMEs in Developing Economies into Sustainability. Dimensioning the Variability of Challenges within Demographic and Firm Characteristics

This study aims to examine if firm characteristics and demography affects the challenges encountered by Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in transitioning into Sustainable Business Practices (SBP). The study uses a Likert scale quantitative survey of 622 respondent MSMEs across East, West and Southern African regions using snowball and random sampling technique. Data analysis using ANOVA, Welch and Brown-Forsythe tests indicate that geographical location, firm size and age of CEO of MSMEs do not significantly affect the challenges encountered by the firms in transitioning to SBP. The study however found a significant variance in the challenges encountered within business segments as MSMEs in the real sectors like agriculture and industry face greater intensity of challenges than those in trade & commerce and service sectors. The study further notes that the age of the firms has significant impact on the challenges as younger MSMEs encounter greater challenges than older firms. The study concludes that though the challenges of adopting SBP are affected by firm characteristics, not all characteristics are affected. There is therefore the need for case-by-case initiatives and policy measures to ensure MSMEs transition to SBP.