Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 22 Issue 7

small business growth in Nigeria. The research adopted a cross-sectional survey design and a deductive technique. A sample size of four hundred and eighty- seven (487) registered small businesses in Delta State, Nigeria was used for the study. The gathered data were analyzed and tested using multiple regression. It was revealed that strategic alliances have a great impact on Nigeria's small firms' ability to grow sustainably and advised that small firms should join any strategic partnership (vertical or horizontal) to achieve long-term business success. The study of Igbokwe and Elikwu (2019) though well carried out, was done in the South-south part of Nigeria dominated by multinational oil companies. It is important to validate or otherwise the result using another geopolitical zone in Nigeria (Abuja, North- Central). Nwaokocha (2017) identified the several ways in which divestment of non-core undertakings by SMEs through strategic business alliance have aided the sustainability of SMEs in Nigeria. Field observations, reference to relevant literature, and a questionnaire was adopted to source the required information through the survey of 613 SMEs. The findings revealed a strong and affirmative association between cost decrease and access to capital. It equally recorded a strong and adverse association with risk reduction. The study recommended that limitations to SMEs sustainability can be enhanced by persistent divestment of 'non-core' actions by the SMEs operators. Nwaokocha (2017) did not state the population of the SMEs in the study area from where the sample of 613 SMEs was drawn. Gul (2011) examined vertical, horizontal, dissimilar integration, and un-diversification strategies and their effect on firm performance. 147 respondents drawn from Danish manufacturing firms were used as a sample. The study covered the years 2009 to 2005. The result revealed that horizontal (allied) integrated firms are overtaking the corporate performance of unrelated diversified firms in terms of profit-making. The study of Gul (2011) did not yield any recommendation for future reference. Antonio, Felipe, Roberto, and Mauro (2016) studied a model where entrepreneurial orientation is allied with strategic alliance when influenced by its top management and entrepreneurial orientation functioning as a multidimensional construct. Data collected from 101 firms in Brazil were analyzed using structural equation modeling. It was discovered from the result that enhancing companies' entrepreneurial orientation like risk-taking, is vital in promoting a firm's strategic alliance. It was recommended that entrepreneurial orientation should be used to intensify strategic alliance and firm performance, especially for small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs). d) Theoretical Standpoint The reasons for the establishment of strategic alliances have been described from numerous theoretical viewpoints. However, the resource- dependence principle is used to drive home this study. The Resource-Dependence Theory (RDT) was publicized by Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) when they submitted that having control over risky resources by one firm will make other companies dependent on it. According to the notion, businesses are varied in terms of their resources and capabilities even though they are engaged in the same industry. In general, the idea contends that businesses often lack all of the resources required of them to continue to have a competitive edge over and above their rivals. Therefore they need to ally and collaborate with other firms gaining from their core competencies, human and material resources for survival. As a result, a strategic tie is typically a workable inter-organizational arrangement that can reduce uncertainty, and risk and improve access to resources and business visibility that will boost organizational performance. RDT, which emphasizes a firm's capacity to develop, build, sustain, and maintain a competitive lead by obtaining valuable resources and market positions, has become an important explanation for the persistent firm level of performance (Tebrani, 2003). A strategy that makes use of a company's distinctive resources and abilities results in a competitive advantage. The use of RDT will highlight the things that the parent resource corporations prefer to control and the methods by which they do so to lead the market. III. M ethodology The study employed a survey research design to investigate the relationship between strategic entrepreneurship alliances and the sustainable growth of small businesses in Nigeria. The influence of one variable on the other was explained using the statistical tool of multiple regression. Three thousand and fifteen (3,015) small-scale enterprises in Abuja Metropolis made up the study's population which was derived from Enterprise Agency of Nigeria's Facts Book (2021). A structured questionnaire was used as the major research tool to obtain data from the sampled respondents. Using the Bartlett, Kotrlik, and Higgins (2001) model of minimum sample size determination, 520 copies of the questionnaire were administered while 488 were dully filled, returned, and used. The initial questionnaire was subjected to content validity testing to ascertain the study instrument's validity. Cronbach's alpha was used to indicate the reliability or internal consistency of the items inside the study's structure, and it provides an average value of 0.86 for the questionnaire. Strategic Entrepreneurship Alliances and Sustainable Growth of Small Businesses in Nigeria: The Nexus 16 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue VII Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals