Influence of Strategic Innovation on the Performance of Small and Medium Women-Owned Enterprises in Kenya
Abstract
In today volatile business environment, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya experience high number of problems affecting their performance, profitability, success and survival. Women-owned SMEs have important contributions to make to innovation and development of the Kenyan economy. Strategic innovations can actually enhance the performance of women-owned SMEs in several aspects. It has been found that more innovative firms adopt different operational strategies to accommodate flexibility and quality capabilities. The objective was to determine the influence of organization innovation on the performance of small and medium women-owned enterprises in Kenya. The scope of this study was in Nairobi County. The study was guided by an epistemological research philosophy adopting a positivist research paradigm. The research design was cross-sectional survey design using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The target population for this study was 5,362 registered women owned enterprises registered with the County Government of Nairobi by December 2017 and the sample size was 358 respondents derived using Fishers formulae. This study used a self-administered, closed and open-ended questionnaire to obtain quantitative data. The study results revealed that organizational innovations had a positive and significant influence on performance of women owned enterprises in Kenya. Findings also implied that strategic innovations adopted helped enterprises to create new markets which improved performance. The study concluded that favourable external environments such proper legislations, political climate conducive for business among others may enhance the performance of small and medium size enterprises. The study recommended that those women-owned enterprises should always be on the lookout for better strategic innovations of conducting business which reduces costs and improves performance.
Keywords: Strategic innovation, Performance, Women-Owned Small and Medium Enterprise
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