Abstract

The study was motivated to investigate the role of entrepreneurial resilience, social motivation and sustainable growth of SMEs in Plateau State. The main objective of the study is to examined the role of entrepreneurial resilience, social motivation and sustainable growth of SMEs among women owners in Plateau State. The study adopted the quantitative method which deals with the use of numerical data to address the current research issues. The study also adopted the survey plan for data collection based on a cross-sectional time horizon so that all respondents can be surveyed at a specific time. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 393 respondents, while Smart PLS-SEM was employed to test the formulated hypotheses. The result indicate that entrepreneurial resilience has a significant relationship on Sustainable Growth of women-owned SMEs in Jos North LGA, Plateau State also entrepreneurial resilience is significantly related with social motivation of women-owned SMEs in Jos North LGA, Plateau State. While social motivation plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between entrepreneurial resilience and sustainable growth of women-owned SMEs in Jos North LGA, Plateau State. The study concluded that entrepreneurial resilience, through socially motivated actions, drive innovative solutions that support sustainable business practices. Entrepreneurial resilience often embodies values like persistence, motherly optimism, inclusivity, community orientation, and ethical responsibility, which cultivate strong social motivation and recommend that Sustain entrepreneurial resilience, foster culture of persistent innovation and supportive women entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurs should cultivate doggedness capacity character for navigating business challenges and opportunities, engage in experimentation, learning and adaptation, while policymakers should ensure training, mentorship and funding to encourage equal gender entrepreneurial activities.