Employee loyalty practices and SME performance in Cameroon: the mediating role of ICT in times of crisis

Abstract

The aims of this study is to analyse the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in the relationship between employee retention practices and the performance of Cameroonian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during a health crisis. The data required for the study were obtained from a questionnaire survey of 271 SMEs operating in the catering, accommodation and transport sectors. After testing for multicollinearity between the independent variables in the study using the chi-square statistic, multinomial logistic regression analysis was employed. The results of the multi-colinearity tests indicated that there was no relationship between the variables in the study. The results of the econometric analyses demonstrated that the adoption of ICT by certain SMEs in the service sector mediates the relationship between loyalty practices and SME performance. In particular, SMEs that adopted or improved their use of ICTs as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic were able to offer their employees enhanced job security and flexible working hours, thereby improving their performance. This result thus supports the relevance of a contingency approach in defining SME employee loyalty practices in times of crisis and the necessity of associating ICTs with the production and sales system of Cameroonian SMEs in order to improve performance. Furthermore, the results indicate that the types of ICT influence the type of employee loyalty practices adopted by SMEs.

Keywords: Employee loyalty, ICT, performance, SME, crisis.

JEL Classification: M54

Type of article: Applied research