• Ogechi Okanya Cookey
• Obiageli Pauline Ohiagu
• Faustinus Ginika Nwachukwu

The paper explored the levels of threat and opportunity that different stakeholder groups present to Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs’) sustainability in Rivers State, Nigeria while uncovering the groups that create the threat-opportunity conundrum. The design for the study was descriptive survey. A 19-item questionnaire with 17 key closed-response type items was administered to 185 SME managers selected via systematic random sampling. Questionnaire administration was done face-to-face as well as through WhatsApp, telephone conversations and Email from August 2019 to January, 2020. At the end, 78% retrieval rate was achieved from 144 respondents. Data analysis was done using mean and standard deviation. Using the Cronbach's Alpha method, a very high reliability score of 9.90 was attained for the questionnaire. The study found out among other things that: larger organisations and competitors present high threat level with less opportunity while government and regulators create low threat level with high opportunity for Rivers State SMEs’ sustainability. Concerning the threat-opportunity conundrum in the SMEs’ sustainability, employees, customers/clients, host community, financial institutions and suppliers were implicated as they offer both high threat and opportunity. They may, therefore, be more responsible (than other stakeholders) for the failure or death of SMEs in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Stakeholders; Stakeholder Theory; Stakeholder threat-opportunity conundrum; Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); Sustainability

"Stakeholder Threat-Opportunity Conundrum in Small and Medium Enterprises Sustainability in Rivers State, Nigeria", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 11, page no.532-542, November-2020, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2011072.pdf

"Stakeholder Threat-Opportunity Conundrum in Small and Medium Enterprises Sustainability in Rivers State, Nigeria", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 11, page no. pp532-542, November-2020, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2011072.pdf