An Empirical Analysis of Corporate Response Strategy and Performance of County Pension Fund, Kenya

The way an organization interacts with its business environment influences the extent to which the organization can achieve its goals and objectives. By responding to the changes in business environment, an oragnisation can effectively develop services and products that adequately serve the customers’ needs. This is done through the use of the corporate strategies. The process of mobilizing finds from the employers and employers is facilitated by Pension funds. In undertaking this role however, County Pension Funds in Kenya are constantly dealing with low profits, poor morale of the employees, inefficiencies, and inadequate customer satisfaction thus based on its financial reports, their performance has been declining. It is against this backdrop that this study examined the effectiveness of the corporate strategies and how they affect performance of County Pension Funds in Kenya. Specifically, the study looked at product diversification, strategic alliances, employee training and development and differentiation and how they influence performance at County Pension Fund, Kenya. The study was anchored on the Porter’s Five Forces Model, Resource Based View and Dynamic Capability theory. A descriptive research design was adopted and targeted a population of 250 staff working at the County Pension Fund. Using a proportionate Stratified random sampling a sample of 73 staff was chosen representing 30% of the population. Questionnaires were used as the data collection instrument. A reliability and validity test was carried out using a Cronbach Alpha coefficients with the coefficients being above 0.70; a threshold established under the cronbach alpha which attested to the reliability of the research instrument used. The analysis of data was done based on both descriptive and inferential analysis which was done using a multiple regression. The results showed that product diversification significantly and positively affected performance (p-value, .030). strategic alliance positively and significantly influenced performance (p-value, .017). There was also significant and positive relationship between employee training and development and performance (p-value, .015) and lastly differentiation strategy positively and significantly impacted performance (p-value, .024). An adjusted R2 of .780 was obtained implying that the predictor variables explained 78% of the changes in performance of County Pension Fund. The study recommended the increase in product lines as a way of diversification, training of employees based on the existing knowledge gaps in an organization, engaging in technology alliances and continuous augmentation of its services.