THE ROLE OF INNOVATION PRACTICES IN FOSTERING SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC ENTITIES: EVIDENCE FROM A DEVELOPING ECONOMY

Authors: Wanyonyi Renson Waono. Dr. Albert Tambo, PhD. & Dr. Fredrick Aila, PhD

ABSTRACT

Today, there is a paradigm shift in firms from managing competition to managing supply chains in the wake of alleviating expected results. This has called for concerted efforts from multi-sector stakeholders to derive the best ways of overcoming supply chain predicaments spanning from increasing costs, cross boarder restrictions, sunken quality and untimeliness. In 2020, just what could go wrong for supply chains did exactly that following emergency of the Covid 19 and later on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; sinking many chain firms in the oblivion of struggling to bring products to where and when required. In Kenya, the Public Procurement Authority report, 2017 shows that many public entities procure at 60% above prevailing market prices, this painting a blustery image in supply chain performance. Empirical evidence reveals that studies on innovation practices have tried to provide solutions to this effect, though majority have concentrated on solitary case perspectives and focused on organization-wide performance, arousing the gist of the current study. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of innovation practices on supply chain performance in a developing economy, Kenya. Through a primary quantitative paradigm, we surveyed 187 public entities in a correlational survey design. The study is mainly grounded in Technology, Organization, and Environment theory. Standard linear regression models guided analysis. Cronbach Alpha technique with 0.7<α<0.88 ascertained reliability.  Findings show that innovation practices significantly affect supply chain performance (R2 =0.422, β=0.649, p<0.05), this denoting that unit improvement in adopting innovations aggravates performance by 0.649 units. The results pitch theoretical establishment on why a firm’s love for innovativeness should not diminish. We recommend stakeholders in public entities to continuously focus on leveraging innovation practices to improve their results.

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