Entrepreneurial Mentoring and its Outcomes among Small and Medium Enterprises in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Today’s entrepreneurial environment is complex and challenging resulting in difficulty in sustaining entrepreneurial outcomes especially in the absence of effective learning and entrepreneurial support capabilities. One of the entrepreneurial support is obtained through mentoring. While globally entrepreneurial mentoring has been used to increase chances of enterprise survival, in Kenya, little mentorship support is provided to start-up enterprises resulting in failure within a short time of operation. The aim of this study was to assess the importance of entrepreneurial mentoring in determining its outcomes among small and medium enterprises in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. This study’s objectives were first to establish the effect of Careers Mentoring Functions on Objective Entrepreneurial Outcomes, secondly, to determine how Psychosocial Mentoring Functions affect Subjective Entrepreneurial Outcomes, thirdly to examine the effectiveness of Classic mentoring on Objective Entrepreneurial Outcomes ,fourthly to examine the moderating effects of age and gender between mentoring and entrepreneurial outcomes, fifth was to compare Entrepreneurial Outcomes between mentored and non-mentored entrepreneurs and lastly to utilize C-PAM Model in testing mentoring functions and entrepreneurial outcomes. The target population was the owners/managers of SMEs in Eldoret, Kenya. Cross-sectional descriptive survey design was employed, with a target size of 4044 .Questionnaires and Interview schedule were used to collect data. Yamane’s Formula was used to achieve a sample size of 364. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis with the use of software (SPSS 22 and AMOS 23). Reliability, Validity and Pilot study was done with level of Cronbach alpha (α > 0.7). Model Fit for C-PAM was done with RMSEA<0.05, GoF> 0.9. The findings from regression analysis yielded the following; Careers mentoring functions had no significant effect on objective entrepreneurial outcomes, Psychosocial mentoring functions had a significant effect on subjective entrepreneurial outcomes, Classic mentoring had no significant effect on objective Entrepreneurial outcomes, C-PAM’s innovativeness had a significant mediating effect on the relationship between career mentoring functions and objective entrepreneurial outcomes, and also that between classic mentoring and objective entrepreneurial outcome. Further, C-PAM’s innovativeness had a significant mediating effect on the relationship between psychosocial mentoring functions and subjective entrepreneurial outcomes. There was a significant difference in objective entrepreneurial outcomes between mentored and non-mentored entrepreneurs. However, there was no significant difference in subjective entrepreneurial outcomes between mentored and non-mentored entrepreneurs. The study concludes that entrepreneurial mentoring is an important factor in producing entrepreneurial outcomes which should be encouraged for entrepreneurial success. Recommendations include formal introduction of entrepreneurial mentoring in the informal sector. Secondly, emphasis on innovative ideas both from the mentors and entrepreneurs themselves for the improvement of enterprise performance and reduction on the stagnation and closing up of enterprises due to lack of outcomes that can sustain the enterprises.