Investigation of Entrepreneurial Emotional Intelligence on Financial Performance of FIIRO Technology Adoptees in South West Geopolitical Zone, Nigeria

Success in entrepreneurial activities is vital to economic development. This has become a major issue of global concern to researchers in entrepreneurship all over the world, including developing nations where entrepreneurs, most especially the micro, small and medium enterprises, play key roles in creating employment opportunities. Therefore, researchers in this field of study should concentrate on conducting empirical research focusing on success factors to bail out ailing enterprises before they shut down, a rampant phenomenon, especially in this post-COVID-19 era coupled with recent global inflation. This study investigated the effect of emotional intelligence on the financial performance of FIIRO (Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi) technology adoptees. The study population is 250 FIIRO technology adoptees who have set up enterprises between 2020 and 2022 based on technologies adopted at FIIRO and are operating in South West Geopolitical Zone comprising Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun and Lagos States. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 20 entrepreneurs per state, giving a total of 120 technology adoptees selected for the study. Research design is a cross-sectional approach. A 6-point Likert Scale questionnaire was used to collect data from 86 participants who responded to the questionnaire. Simple regression analysis through SPSS is used for data analysis to test the six hypotheses of the study. Five measures or dimensions of emotional intelligence used in this study are: internal motivation, empathy, self-regulation, self-awareness and skill building, while financial performance measures are: profitability, sales growth, market share, net asset growth and number of employees. The result shows a weak but significant effect of emotional intelligence on financial performance {R2= 0.332, F(1,84)= 10.398, p= 0.002} of FIIRO technology adoptees. Self regulation {R2= 0.115, F(1,84)= 10.889, p= 0.000} and empathy {R2= 0.157, F(1,84)= 15.641, p= 0.000} have weak but significant effect on financial performance. However, self-awareness {R2= 0.020, F(1,84)= 1.735, p= 0.191}, internal motivation {R2= 0.000, F(1,84)= 0.031, p= 0.860} and skill building {R2= 0.025, F(1,84)= 2.144, p= 0.147} have very weak and no significant effect on financial performance. Entrepreneurs would find the results of this study useful to properly harness their emotional intelligence dimensions, most especially self-regulation and empathy dimensions, to achieve the enterprise goal, which is a success.