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The purpose of the study was to explore the degree to which women-led SMEs
embrace the entrepreneurial strategic planning practices (ESPP) dimensions of EO
(Entrepreneurial Orientation), SI (Scanning Intensity), PF (Planning Flexibility), PH
(Planning Horizon) and LP (Locus of Planning) for enhanced firm performance.
This study was aimed at providing insight and a model that would enable womenled
enterprises to be more profitable and achieve sustainable enterprise goals and
graduation to large enterprises. This was to be achieved by identifying and
employing entrepreneurial growth oriented planning strategies that could reduce
constraints brought by the changing environments that these enterprises operate in.
This study was based on the logical positivism philosophy whereby the research
design was of an explorative approach combining both qualitative and quantitative
research designs, techniques and measures. This mixed approach provided a basis
for the study to triangulate the empirical, constructs and the reality approaches. A
cross-sectional survey and interviews were used to collect data. The multi-stage
sampling technique was used namely, first stage - stratified sampling according to
the 4 sectors, that is, agro-based industries, other industries, service and trade and
second stage - simple random sampling. The sample size was 128 enterprises drawn
from a target population of 226 enterprises distributed across the four sectors –
Agro-based Industry (70 enterprises), other industry (38), services (58) and trade
(47). The key respondents were top managers, entrepreneurs and 3 employees from
each of the 128 enterprises drawn from a 50Km radius of Nairobi and within the
Nairobi metropolitan area. The study employed four basic methods to collect data -
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three sets of questionnaires, two sets of interview guides, review of secondary data
and computer-based data provided by Pamoja Women Development Program
(PAWDEP). Cronbach’s alpha was used as a measure of reliability, to test the
hypotheses developed for the study, appropriate statistical tests such as the F test
was used. This was achieved through structural equation modeling, correlation
analysis, multiple and step-wise regression analysis, ANOVA and univariate
ANOVA. Path analysis was carried out to establish the causal relationships between
the various variables using Analysis of MOment Structures (AMOS) Version 16
software.
The research results showed that the attitudes towards entrepreneurial orientation
by both the top management and the employees had a positive relationship and
played a major role on the average sales growth. However, there was poor
enterprise performance, when measured in terms of sales-employee growth and
profitability during the 2007-2008 periods as a result of the political volatility and
economic instabilities experienced at that period. Two specific variables of
planning flexibility, that is, ease at which enterprises are able to adjust to
emergence of new technology and the entry of new competition were found to be
significantly related to sales growth and levels of performance.
Time periods that were less than one year and over a five year period had
significant influence on firms’ performance. The entrepreneurs’ age and education
were important factors to consider when deciding the depth in locus of planning
and had a significant impact on return on assets. The results showed that the
enterprises’ age, size and legal status were significant factors to consider when
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deciding the depth of employee involvement in the firms’ strategic planning
activities (locus of planning), length of planning (planning horizon) and how
flexible plans were (planning flexibility). These were however not important in
determining the entrepreneurial orientation of the enterprise or scanning intensity
for the women-led enterprises in the Kenyan setup. Strategic management process
elements had a significant negative moderating influence on ESPP and therefore
performance of firms. The research results showed that there was poor enterprise
performance, when measured in terms of sales-employee growth and profitability
during the 2007-2008 period as a result of the political volatility (pre-election
phobia and post election chaos) and economic instabilities experienced at that
period.
The predictor planning flexibility influence on the performance of enterprises was
negative. The implication of this is that the more inflexible the plans, the better the
performance of enterprises. For entrepreneurial orientation, the most important
predictor was propensity to take risks. The implication of this is that the influence
of the tendency to take risks had a significant part to plays in making it
entrepreneurial.
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