BC-School of Business

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Browsing BC-School of Business by Author "Imathiu, Michael Muriuki"

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    Strategic Innovation and Operational Performance of Kenya Breweries Limited, Nairobi City County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2023-12) Imathiu, Michael Muriuki
    Strategic innovation in either technology, product, process or even service, provide opportunities for enhancing operational performance. Kenya Breweries Limited which is categorized under the manufacturing industry in Kenya, has been operating in an increasingly competitive, highly regulated and dynamic market. Therefore, the company has formulated strategies aimed to ensure the operational efficiency of the firm. However, despite the adopted measures, Kenya Breweries Limited still faces operational challenges which include; inflation impacting operational costs, managing overheads due to the increased number of employee requirements, adopting to modern operations due to high skills requirements, high costs of investing in green energy capital, shifting service demand requirements and diminishing returns from process enhancements. The company also is facing increasing levels of competition in the beer sector marked by illegal brewers as well as new local and international start-ups businesses. The main aim of this study therefore, was to investigate the effect of strategic innovation and operational performance of Kenya Breweries in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to determine the influence of technology, process, product and service innovation on operational performance and the unit of analysis was Kenya Breweries based in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study was anchored on porter’s generic competitive theory and diffusion innovation theory. In the research design, descriptive survey was most preferred methodology for this study. Further, the unit of observation was 382 employees who were distributed within the senior, middle and lower-level management. A sample of 115 participants was arrived and stratified random sampling was used to get the participants. Primary data was collected by use of a questionnaire. The filled in data was then coded in SPPS for analysis where tables were used to display descriptive data. On the same, frequency distributions, numbers, mean and median values and the standard deviation of scores were also used. Thereafter, linear regression analysis, was used to draw inferences about the nature of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. In addition, interpretation of the resulting data in light of the theoretical and empirical literature reviewed in chapter two was carried out. The study found adopted technologies, product innovation, process innovation and service innovation influenced Kenya Breweries Limited operational performance to a great extent. The study therefore concludes that a unit increases in the scores of technology innovation would lead to an increase in the scores of performances of Kenya Breweries Limited, Kenya. The findings presented also show that a unit increase in product innovation would lead an increase on performance of Kenya Breweries Limited. The study conclude that a unit increase in process innovation would lead to an increase on performance of Kenya Breweries Limited. Further, the study conclude that a unit increase in the scores of service innovation would lead to an increase on performance of Kenya Breweries Limited. Overall, product innovation had the greatest influence on performance of Kenya Breweries Limited, followed by then technology innovation, then process innovation, while service innovation had the least influence on the performance of Kenya Breweries Limited. Kenya Breweries Limited should adopt technology innovation that will enhance the company’s product and service generation to support the company’s production performance. The study also recommends that Kenya Breweries Limited should enhance their product innovation to provision of relevant products of the highest quality in order to sustain and expand market share. The study recommends that Kenya Breweries Limited process innovation can be enhanced through employing employees who are skilled in operations evaluation of the company’s systems.