ANALYSIS OF MARKET INTELLIGENCE AND SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

 

Aloysius Isowede¹ Chinonye Moses² Oladele Kehinde³ Odunayo P Salau⁴

¹Department of Business Management, Covenant University, NIGERIA, globalaloy@gmail.com

²Covenant University, NIGERIA, chinonye.moses@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

³Covenant University, NIGERIA, oladele.kehinde@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

⁴Covenant University, NIGERIA, odunayo.salau@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

 

Abstract

In the last half century, there have been many significant shifts in firms’ setting, such as steady modifications in customers’ preferences, establishment of new technologies, intense global competition and increased focus on customer satisfaction. These modifications have put manufacturing businesses in Africa, especially the textile industry in Nigeria, under various kinds of stress to increase their performance through information relevant to market trends, competitor and customers’ expectation. In a recent report, Nigeria's National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers mentioned hundreds of textile businesses across the nation as moribund. It said that as of 2018, at least 60 textile businesses had closed shops in Lagos with a total of 66,250 employees. At least 18 other significant textile firms were also said to have collapsed in the last five years with 19,300 employees across the nation. Hence, this paper submits that a well-developed competitive and market acumens may probably assure the sustainability of the Nigerian textile industry in Nigeria. As a result, this study ascertains whether market intelligence can be used to sustain the performance of textile industry in Nigeria. Additionally, this paper adopts resource‐based view, contingency theory and institutional theory to explain and predict issues rose in the study. The survey method of descriptive approach was employed to establish trends and draw inferences. The target population comprised four (4) active textile companies with 313 staff members. Survey questionnaire was purposively adopted and copies were administered during the association’s meetings. The validity and reliability of the instrument were established and data collected were analysed using measurement and structural equation modelling (SEM) to establish fitness and strength of relationship at 5% level of significance. The result obtained established that the sub-variables of the market intelligence - competitive and market insights have significant are significant predictors of firms’ performance (R = .779, R2 = .607, p < .05). This implies that 60.7% of the change in the sustainable performance was due to market intelligence latent constructs in the model. Also, the result indicated that the ability of the textile industry to know their market (customers’ preference and competitors) and make informed decisions regarding their brands and products will help to better optimize their campaigns for increased performance. Further, the paper gave insight into the areas of improvement that are needed by the employees in promoting customer lifetime value and sustaining performance. This paper provides pragmatic and dependable recommendations as well as policy direction at both organizational and government levels. At organisational level, managers may consider strengthening their understanding of the market trends for enhanced performance. Government policies should be targeted towards the provision of infrastructural facilities and promotion of sustainable industrial policy that would have a stronger influence on firms’ sustainable performance

Keywords: Market intelligence, Sustainable Performance, Customers’ Preference, Competition, Textile Industry