https://carijournals.org/journals/index.php/JEPM <p>Journal of Entrepreneurship and Project Management is a scholarly journal that publishes research on entrepreneurship and project management. It is an open access, peer reviewed, and global journal that aims to provide a platform for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. The journal covers topics such as entrepreneurial mindset, innovation, opportunity recognition, venture creation, project planning, execution, control, and evaluation. The journal is indexed in several databases and provides certificates for publication to the authors. The authors retain the copyrights of their articles and can use them for any purposes as long as they acknowledge the source.</p> CARI Journals Limited en-US Journal of Entrepreneurship and Project Management 2520-9116 <p>Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License</a> that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.</p> https://carijournals.org/journals/index.php/JEPM/article/view/1458 <p><strong>Purpose:</strong> This study examined the relationship between the functionality of farmers’ stores and LED initiatives. Specifically, the study determined the effect of farmers’ stores functionality on resource mobilisation; assessed the contribution of farmers’ stores functionality on resource management; and assessed the effect of farmers’ stores functionality on resource utilisation.</p> <p><strong>Methodology:</strong> The study adopted a cross-sectional study design, which employed a mixed methods approach of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The study population consisted of 322 respondents, which involved both political leaders and civil servants of Aber Sub County in addition to members of the farmers’ groups. Both the Simple random sampling technique and purposive sampling technique were used to select a sample of 177 participants. The researcher adopted Self-Administered Questionnaires to collect quantitative data and an interview guide to collect qualitative data. Both descriptive statistics (mean, and standard deviation), and inferential statistics (correlation and regression) were used to analyse numerical data. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data.</p> <p><strong>Findings:</strong> The findings revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between functionality of farmers’ stores and LED initiatives. The functionality of farmers’ stores yielded a significant effect on resource mobilisation, resource management and resource utilisation. It was concluded that the functionality of farmers’ stores significantly affects LED initiatives in Aber Sub County, Oyam district.</p> <p><strong>Unique Contributions to Theory, Policy and Practice:</strong> It is recommended that the production and agricultural department of Oyam district local government strengthens the capacity of farmer groups by training them on activities such as value addition and financial management so that they can be in position to mobilise more financial resources. This study contributes an original and empirical-evidence of the functionality of farmers’ stores towards LED initiatives in Uganda.</p> Emmanuel Clement Otim David Mwesigwa Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of Entrepreneurship and Project Management 2023-09-22 2023-09-22 8 2 1 28 10.47941/jepm.1458 https://carijournals.org/journals/index.php/JEPM/article/view/1468 <p><strong>Purpose</strong>: The purpose of this study was to establish how credit risk management practices influence performance of Real Estate Construction Housing projects in Busia County.</p> <p><strong>Methodology</strong>: The data for this study was collected using questionnaires, focus group discussions and interview schedules. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics involved quantitative data analysis therefore it used measures of central tendencies such as frequency, percentage, and mean standard deviation, composite mean and composite standard deviation, while inferential statistics involved testing of research hypotheses using spearman correlation and regression analysis.</p> <p><strong>Findings</strong>: During data analysis the study found that credit risk influences performance of real estate construction housing projects in Busia County; implying that using the Likert scale, the respondents agreed that credit risk influences performance of real estate construction housing projects in Busia County. The overall correlation coefficient for credit &nbsp;Risk Management&nbsp; and Performance of real estate construction housing projects in Busia County was found to be 0.580 with a p-value of 0.000 &lt;&nbsp; 0.05 implying that from the views of&nbsp;&nbsp; participants in the study the results indicated that there was a significant relationship between Credit Risk Management and Performance of real estate construction housing projects in Busia County; leading to rejection of the null hypothesis and acceptance of the alternative hypothesis. The simple linear regression coefficients as well as the Pearson correlation results indicated that there was significant influence of Credit risk management on Performance of real estate construction housing projects in Busia County.</p> <p><strong>Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice</strong>: The study contributed the theory that revealed that past statistics show that higher interest rates on credit have not necessarily misguided real estate total return performance but property performance has often remained resilient in the face of rising rates. The study also informed the practice that real estate development is a capital intensive investment and thus developers have to explore alternative sources of capital which can be affordable to them. Finally, the study informed the policy makers that to deliver the high numbers of affordable housing units required, the process of land and real estate transactions needs to be much faster.</p> Ekisa Amoo Murunga Charles M. Rambo John M. Mbugua Copyright (c) 2023 Murunga Ekisa Amoo, Charles M. Rambo (PhD), John M. Mbugua (PhD) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2023-10-10 2023-10-10 8 2 29 48 10.47941/jepm.1468 https://carijournals.org/journals/index.php/JEPM/article/view/1530 <p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of entrepreneurial networking skills on growth of small and medium plastic manufacturing enterprises in Nigeria.</p> <p><strong>Methodology: </strong>Mixed methods research design was applied by the study. The study target population was 18,476 plastics manufacturing SMEs in LAGOS State, Nigeria. Based on Yamane Formula adopted the sample size for this study was 397 respondents. Random sampling was used to select the 392 plastics manufacturing SMEs. The study therefore randomly selected 392 plastics manufacturing SMEs from a list of total lists of these is 18476 plastics manufacturing SMEs in LAGOS State, Nigeria. The managing director/CEO of these enterprises were the main respondents therefore the study administered 392 questionnaires. The study used semi structured questionnaires to collect primary data. The study used SPSS version 27 software to analyse the data. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were carried out.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>The inferential analysis results revealed that entrepreneurial networking skills had a significant and positive influence on the growth of small and medium plastic manufacturing enterprises in Nigeria at p&lt;0.05. This indicates that strategic question asking, ability to get referrals and value adding skills are crucial drivers of growth of small and medium plastic manufacturing enterprises. The Coefficient of determination R² of 0.470 showed that 47.0% of Growth of SMEs is explained by entrepreneurial financial skills. The R value for the model was 0.686 and the R²was 0.470. This was a sign that the model was appropriate for establishing the link between entrepreneurial networking skills and the growth of small and medium plastic manufacturing enterprises and, as a result, for drawing the conclusions and suggestions from the study. &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy</strong>: While the existing Social network entrepreneurship theory used in this study was validated, the study recommends that SMEs in Nigeria should form quality networking which will enable them to create social communities shared by stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, other enterprises. According to the study, policymakers and state regulatory organizations should take the lead in formulating favourable legislation and policies that will provide friendly operating environment to enhance the growth of SMEs.</p> Jolly Joshua Habila Dauda Gregory Namusonge Samson Nyang’au Copyright (c) 2023 Jolly Joshua Habila Dauda, Prof. Gregory Namusonge, Dr. Samson Nyang’au https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2023-11-28 2023-11-28 8 2 49 69 10.47941/jepm.1530