Determinants of strategy implementation in the insurance industry in Kenya

Abstract

The fundamental importance of strategy management is that the world keeps changing. Strategy implementation is a series of actions aimed at putting a selected strategy at work by planning how the chosen strategy can be put into effect and managing the changes required. Organizations have come up with credible strategies which have failed to see the light of day due to poor implementation. For successful implementation, an organization's various resources, systems, structures and other variables must be expended. Many studies have been carried out on various issues on strategy management but none has focused on the strategy implementation in a locally incorporated insurance company. This study was meant to evaluate how competitive strategy implementation affects the performance of insurance industry in Kenya. To achieve the objective of this study, data was collected from the managers in insurance firms in Kenya. The study used mixed methods research design to collect and analyse the data. The data was collected using questionnaires. The target population of the study was the entire 51 registered insurance companies operating in Kenya. The data collected was checked for completeness and thoroughly edited before being coded and entered into a computer software SPSS version 17 for analysis. The variables of the study were analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean, frequencies, and standard deviation. A multiple regression model was adopted to examine the effect of the variables of the performance of the firms. The hypothesis of this study was tested using non-parametric statistics of hypothesis testing Mann-Whitney test. The findings of this study will provide useful information to the insurance firm managers on the strategies for competition in today’s volatile and ever changing market environment. The study found out that to a very great extent Choice of strategies on advertising and promotion affects the strategy decisions of company while to a great extent Choice of Staff; Product development and Choice of branch networks affects the strategy decisions of company.The study concludes that to a very great extent, Choice of branch networks affects the strategy decisions of company while Choice of Staff; Choice of strategies on advertising and Product development affects the strategy decisions of company. Further the study recommends that managerial competences be implemented since they are key ingredients in organizational success. It has been found out that minor competence developments are unlikely to have any impact on improvement of firms’ performance