IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rnd/arjebs/v9y2017i2p161-173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors Influencing Competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nairobi County, Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Anne Irungu
  • Robert Arasa

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine factors influencing firm competitiveness among the Small and Medium Enterprises in Nairobi, Kenya. Specifically the study set out to examine the influence of strategic leadership, technology, resources and organization culture on competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises in Nairobi. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The study population comprised of SMEs in Nairobi which fall within the top 100 SMEs in Kenya. There are 79 SMEs from Nairobi County in the Top 100 SMEs in Kenya. A sample size of 25 SMEs which represented 30% of the target population was selected through stratified random sampling. The stratification was based on five business sector categories (real estate, supplies, services, distribution and manufacturing). The study utilized primary data which was collected from top management employees through the use of questionnaire. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Correlation analysis was employed to aid in establishing the nature and strength of the relationships between variables of interest. Correlation analysis results indicate that strategic leadership, adoption of relevant technology, resources availability and organization culture has a positive and significant relationship with firm competitiveness. The study concludes that sustainable competitive advantage of the firm stems from effective strategic leadership, adoption of technology, resources availability and effective organization culture. The study recommends that SMEs should embrace various competitive strategies to remain relevant in the market and achieve the required competitiveness. The SMEs managers should embrace strategic leadership practices, benchmark on best practices to ensure constant touch with their customers, embrace adoption of appropriate technology towards realizing higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness, ensure optimal utilization of resources, and cultivate a good balance between the organization culture and the organization processes so as to enhance competitive advantage. This study was confined to factors influencing organizational competitiveness of small and medium enterprises within Nairobi County. Other studies could be pursued in terms of expanding the geographical setting and taking recognition of other variables that could intervene and or moderate the investigated relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Irungu & Robert Arasa, 2017. "Factors Influencing Competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nairobi County, Kenya," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 9(2), pages 161-173.
    • Handle: RePEc:rnd:arjebs:v:9:y:2017:i:2:p:161-173
    DOI: 10.22610/jebs.v9i2(J).1658
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs/article/view/1658/1427
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs/article/view/1658
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22610/jebs.v9i2(J).1658?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gautam Ray & Jay B. Barney & Waleed A. Muhanna, 2004. "Capabilities, business processes, and competitive advantage: choosing the dependent variable in empirical tests of the resource‐based view," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 23-37, January.
    2. Ahmad Fadhly Arham, 2014. "Leadership and Performance: The Case of Malaysian SMEs in the Services Sector," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(3), pages 343-355, March.
    3. Ahmad Fadhly Arham, 2014. "Leadership and Performance: The Case of Malaysian SMEs in the Services Sector," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 2(3), pages 343-355.
    4. Christine Oliver, 1997. "Sustainable competitive advantage: combining institutional and resource‐based views," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(9), pages 697-713, October.
    5. Ainuddin, R. Azimah & Beamish, Paul W. & Hulland, John S. & Rouse, Michael J., 2007. "Resource attributes and firm performance in international joint ventures," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 47-60, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mitra Madanchian & Hamed Taherdoost, 2017. "Role of Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)," Post-Print hal-02557381, HAL.
    2. John Mugambwa Serumaga-Zake & John Andrew van der Poll, 2021. "Addressing the Impact of Fourth Industrial Revolution on South African Manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-31, October.
    3. Mitra Madanchian & Hamed Taherdoost, 2017. "Role of Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)," Post-Print hal-03741845, HAL.
    4. Chido Samantha Madhanga & Steven Kayambazinthu Msosa & Tatenda Chikukwa, 2022. "Assessing various leadership styles used at a multinational company specialising in marine services in Sub-Saharan Africa," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(2), pages 136-143, March.
    5. Jekelle, Helen Elena, 2021. "Leadership Styles Dimensions and Organizational Commitment Nexus: Evidence from a Public Sector in Nigeria," OSF Preprints djkqz, Center for Open Science.
    6. Khallaf, Ashraf & Skantz, Terrance, 2011. "Does long term performance improve following the appointment of a CIO?," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 57-78.
    7. Darnall, Nicole & Henriques, Irene & Sadorsky, Perry, 2008. "Do environmental management systems improve business performance in an international setting?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 364-376, December.
    8. Azizah Hashim & Che Mohd Zulkifli Che Omar & Mohd Sahandri Gani Hamzah & Azmi Umar, 2018. "Leadership Behaviour, Entrepreneurial Orientation and Organisational Performance in Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(9), pages 37-50, September.
    9. Joko Triraharjo & Havidz Aima & Achmad Sutawijaya, 2019. "The Effect of Servant Leadership and Breakthrough Leadership on Organization Performance with Employee Satisfaction as Intervening Variable at IDX-listed (Indonesia Stock Exchange) Coal Mining Compani," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 9(3), pages 166-172.
    10. Nor Sabrena Norizan & Ahmad Fadhly Arham & Ahmad Firdhaus Arham & Fatanah Jislan & Siti Norashikin Bashirun, 2024. "Perceived Organisational Support, Transformational Leadership and Organizational Performance: Perspectives of Hospitality Industry in Malaysia," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 16(1), pages 157-172.
    11. Nayak, Bishwajit & Bhattacharyya, Som Sekhar & Krishnamoorthy, Bala, 2022. "Exploring the black box of competitive advantage – An integrated bibliometric and chronological literature review approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 964-982.
    12. Hendrik Klier & Christian Schwens & Florian B. Zapkau & Desislava Dikova, 2017. "Which Resources Matter How and Where? A Meta-Analysis on Firms’ Foreign Establishment Mode Choice," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 304-339, May.
    13. Nur Hidayah Hud & Ahmad Fadhly Arham & Zulkefli Muhamad Hanapiyah, 2024. "Successful Leadership Styles from the Lense of Qualitative Perspective: A Conceptual Visit," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 16(1), pages 116-123.
    14. Niyi Israel Akeke, 2016. "Factor of Strategic Leadership: Antidote to Firm Performance," International Journal of Management Sciences, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 7(1), pages 7-13.
    15. Zhang, Yucheng & Hou, Zhongwei & Yang, Feifei & Yang, Miles M. & Wang, Zhiling, 2021. "Discovering the evolution of resource-based theory: Science mapping based on bibliometric analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 500-516.
    16. Najda Hayajneh & Taghrid Suifan & Bader Yousef Obeidat & Mohammd Abuhashesh & Raed Kareem Kanaan, 2020. "The relationship between organizational changes and job satisfaction in the Jordanian telecommunication industry," Journal of Social Sciences (COES&RJ-JSS), , vol. 9(1), pages 1-20, January.
    17. Vitaliy Roud & Thomas Wolfgang Thurner, 2018. "The Influence of State‐Ownership on Eco‐Innovations in Russian Manufacturing Firms," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(5), pages 1213-1227, October.
    18. Venugopal Gopalakrishna-Remani & Robert Paul Jones & Kerri M. Camp, 2019. "Levels of EMR Adoption in U.S. Hospitals: An Empirical Examination of Absorptive Capacity, Institutional Pressures, Top Management Beliefs, and Participation," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(6), pages 1325-1344, December.
    19. Hornyák, Miklós & Kruzslicz, Ferenc & Lányi, Beatrix, 2023. "A kis- és középvállalatok digitális transzformációja - az online jelenlét és a versenyképesség összefüggései [The relationships between the online presence of SMEs and competitiveness]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(5), pages 517-543.
    20. Leonidou, Leonidas C. & Leonidou, Constantinos N. & Fotiadis, Thomas A. & Zeriti, Athina, 2013. "Resources and capabilities as drivers of hotel environmental marketing strategy: Implications for competitive advantage and performance," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 94-110.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rnd:arjebs:v:9:y:2017:i:2:p:161-173. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Muhammad Tayyab (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.