Cyber entrepreneurship and employment generation of small and medium enterprises in south-east Nigeria

The study evaluated influence of cyber entrepreneurship on employment generation of Small and Medium Enterprises in South-East Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to: ascertain the effect of selling of digital information product on job creation of Small and Medium Enterprises and examine the effect of selling of physical product on employment generation of Small and Medium Enterprises. The study adopted descriptive research design. The study area was South-east Nigeria. Research design of the study was questionnaire survey research. The sample size of 387 respondents was taken from population of 13,455 staff among 204 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operated in South-east Nigeria. The selected SMEs under study were as follows: Rokana Industries Ltd. Umualum- Nekede; Cutix Plc Umuanuka, Otolo, Nnewi; Juhel Nigeria Ltd Nkwubor Rd. Emene; Mikko Plastics Ind. Ltd Umuocham, Aba and Eze-Rome Oil Palm Abakaliki Ebonyi State. The research question were answered with simple percentage, mean and deviation while hypotheses were tested with single regression. The empirical results show that selling of digital information product has significant effect on job creation of Small and Medium Enterprises in South-East Nigeria (t-statistic; 6.484; P-value; 0.000 < Sig-value; 0.05) and selling of physical products have significant effect employment generation of Small and Medium Enterprises in South-East Nigeria (t-statistic; 11. 826; P-value; 0.000 < Sig-value; 0.05). The study recommended that government and organizations should as a way of empowerment, train and equip youths with the necessary skills and facilities that will aid their involvement in online application services.