Globalization and Local Entrepreneurial Challenges, Opportunities and Traits in Ethiopia: The Case of Addis Ababa SME-Industries

Globalization increased competitive pressure and rapid technological changes that brought the business world to a point in history and thus, the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) on manufacturing industry sector in Africa and Ethiopia, are experiencing new challenges and opportunities as they attempt to harvest domestic business and globalize their operations and become competitive. The objective of this study was to assess the extent to which the manufacturing industry SME’s in Addis perceived the challenges, opportunities traits of Globalization, therefore the study sought to answer the question what are challenges, Opportunities, traits of globalization & the strategies adopted by small and medium enterprises to cope with challenges of globalization in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia? As globalization phenomenon is reshaping the economies, redefining national cultures, influencing inflows of capital & labor, the survival of non-innovative indigenous Small &medium size manufacturing business will be in question unless SMEs have in place the right strategies in order to embrace the changing circumstances in the world marketplace. The design of this research was descriptive survey research. The target population of the study was 405 small and medium enterprises in Addis Ababa. The researcher developed a questionnaire that contained the questions which were both closed-ended and also a few open-ended. The collected data was thoroughly examined and checked for completeness and comprehensibility. The study further analyzed the data using descriptive statistic and factor analysis. From the findings, the study revealed that most of the small and medium manufacturing industries in Addis Ababa are not involved in the global market and their domestic market coverage is also not at satisfactory level. SME industries have been pushed by increasing globalization, heavy competition. Newly empowered customers in new markets and fast-changing technologies that has been requiring the firms to respond to global business in SME sector. The study concluded by recommending SME-industries to have global business outlook, focus on developing skill-based entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership management. Keywords: Globalization, Entrepreneurship, Small and medium enterprise