IMPLEMENTATION DRIVERS OF COUNTY INTEGRATED STRATEGIC PLANS AND GROWTH OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES
Authors:
Nelson Makokha Kwamini, Caroline Sitienei Koech & Elijah Museve
Abstract:
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the development of any economic growth. Economies have increasingly employed SMEs as a framework to achieve economic performance in a more efficient manner. Studies point out that 90% of strategic initiatives fail, due to implementation difficulties. Despite the crucial role, SMEs are affected by several factors such as leadership, planning, resources use and allocation among others. Failure in the implementation of strategy causes huge costs in the organization. Despite the significance of the strategy implementation process in strategic management, it is often eclipsed by a focus on other dimensions of strategy. Strategic planning and implementation are important for SMEs to be able to face local and global competition, technological changes, and cope with increased dynamics in the markets. Studies reveal varied conceptualizations of key drivers of strategy implementation. The general objective of this study was to determine the effect of implementation drivers of county integrated development plans and the growth of SMEs in Busia County, Kenya. Specific objectives were; to determine the effect of organizational culture, leadership, ICT, and resources as strategy implementation drivers on growth SMEs. The study was guided by, stakeholder theory, Resource-Based View theory and Enterprise Life Cycle Model. The study employed mixed methods and multistage sampling techniques on a study sample of 386 respondents using a structured questionnaire. The findings revealed that culture had a positive and significant effect on the growth of SMEs (β= .107; p<.05); leadership had a positive and significant effect on the growth of SMEs (β= .142; p<.05). information communication technology had a negative and insignificant effect on the growth of SMEs (β= -0.024; p>.05) and allocation of resources had a positive and significant effect on the growth of SMEs (β= .324; p<.05). Given that different County, Governments have different resources in terms of economic activities and business opportunities it is recommended that a similar study could be done to evaluate the effect of organizational culture and leadership on the growth and performance of SMEs by application of panel data techniques over a period of ten years.