EFFECTS OF CRIME ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SMALL ENTERPRISES IN THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT ELDORET TOWN, KENYA

Abstract

The need to protect property rights and fighting crime continues to be an urgent task for authorities in many developing countries because it assists in enterprise start up and growth. This study was to find out the effect of burglary on performance of small enterprises, to find out the effect of robbery on performance of small enterprises, to examine the relationship between robbery acts burglary acts and employee infidelity acts on the performance of small enterprises and to find out the challenges entrepreneurs face in addressing robbery, burglary and employee infidelity in Eldoret Town. The study was guided by theory of rational choice and use of explanatory research design. More than 2000 small enterprises which are formally registered with Eldoret municipal council were targeted in the study. A random sampling technique was used to select 300 respondents for the study. Structured questionnaire were used to collect primary data. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used in the study. The study findings showed that robbery had significant and positive effect on performance of SE (β1 = -0.240, ρ<0, 05). Similarly, employee infidelity (β2 = -0.201, ρ<0.05) and burglary β2 = -0.201, ρ<0.05) had significant negative impact on small enterprise performance. The findings showed that robbery activities were major cause of financial loss. Therefore SE performance will improve if there is a reduction in robbery activities. The study recommends that guidelines on dealing with burglary activities should be communicated from top police management to all those involved in maintaining security in order to create an enabling business environment for small enterprises. An appropriate working environment in enterprises should be provided to employees to reduce employee infidelity.