One of the sectors credited with helping to keep the Philippines afloat in the early eighties was the large pool of micro and small enterprises, mostly unregistered then, and popularly referred to as the underground economy. Recently, attention seems to be again focused on these enterprises, a good number of which have metamorphosed into formal businesses and now go by the acronym “MSME” for “micro, small and medium enterprises,” as the country’s vanguard in meeting the economic challenges of the 21st century, especially in enhancing our chances of success as a participant in the global marketplace. This paper identified the prevailing business practices of these MSMEs in Davao City, evaluated the performance of the different companies belonging to this sector, and assessed the readiness of the sector to take on the challenge of the global marketplace. The researcher concluded that, given its current state of affairs, the sector still has to do a lot more in terms of tightening up its organization, building up its financial muscle and upgrading the level of sophistication in the way they run their businesses if they are to become global players.
ISSN 1908-3130 (Print)
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