Founder’s Syndrome and Firm Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Nigeria

Introduction: Founder’s syndromes have become a significant issue in SMEs performance. This study examined the impact of founder’s syndrome on firm performance of small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria. Method: The study employed simple random sampling technique using Partial Least Square (PLS) to analyze the data obtained from structured questionnaires. The study used total population of 4663 SMEs and derived a sample of 357 questionnaires obtained from National Association of Small Scale Industrialist (NASSI), Kano chapter. The exogenous variable of the study was founder’s syndrome and endogenous variable was firm financial performance. Results: The finding revealed that founder’s syndrome is significantly related to performance of small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria. Discussion: Findings can be of help to policy makers, management of SMEs and practitioners to consider the effect of Founder’s syndrome on their performance. Moreover, the results indicated the suitability of the PLS in statistical analysis and also contributed to better understanding of SMEs in Kano which hitherto has not been tested. Implications for research and practice and future recommendations are discussed.