SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE'S INTERNAL RESOURCES AND INVESTMENT DECISIONS IN GHANA: THE RESOURCE-BASED APPROACH

We report new evidence on Small and Medium Enterprises' (SMEs') internal resources, i.e investment capital, business stability, customer size, type of ownership, legal status, industrial structure and location on investment decisions in the Ghanaian oil and gas sector between 2016 and 2017. Overall, we find that SMEs of larger business size, with large investment capital, large fixed assets, more business stability, structured business ownership, large customer size, registered status, operations in urban locations and reinvested annual profits - are more likely to invest in Ghanaian oil and gas sector. Per contra, the results reveal that industrial structure has no influence on SMEs' investment decisions. Additionally, our findings are most robust to SMEs that choose to invest in the oil and gas value chain which is consistent with the resource-based theory. This empirical study has been conducted through a survey. Data has been collected using a stratified sampling technique and structured questionnaires with 245 SMEs across diverse industries. The survey data has been analyzed using binominal logit regression and Chi-square test. The results are expected to be of substantial importance for investment decisions in the domestic business environment. We strongly recommend the replication of this study in other emerging oil and gas economies.