The aim of this study is to identify growth determinants of small urban manufacturing
enterprises of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Primary data has been collected from three
sampled cities of Oromia Regional State. 116 sample manufacturing enterprises have been
surveyed in total to collect primary data using questionnaire. Multiple Linear Regressions
has been employed to analyze the data. Explanatory variables employed include
enterprise characteristics (EC), enterprise business characteristics (EBC) and manager
characteristics (MC). Enterprise characteristics include initial employment size and age of
the enterprise. Business debt finance, market area and work premise of the enterprise
have been categorized under enterprise business practice characteristics. In addition,
manager characteristics comprise age, sex, education level and prior industry related
experience of the manager. The findings show that among enterprise characteristics, initial
size of employment affects the small enterprise growth negatively whereas age has no
statistically significant impact in the study area. Regarding enterprise characteristics,
market area affects enterprise growth positively while the rest business debt and work
premises have no significant impact on growth of enterprise in the study area. Similarly,
prior experience and education level of the manager have a positive contribution on
enterprise growth. But, according to the finding of this study, enterprise growth has no
relation with age and sex of the manager.