MST-Department of Business Administration

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Browsing MST-Department of Business Administration by Subject "A Case"

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    Competitive Strategies and Organisational Performance: A Case of Insurance Companies in Nyeri County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2021) Ngugi, Njuguna Samuel; Paul Waithaka
    The Kenyan insurance sector has been struggling with inability to sustain the momentum of insurance penetration. Challenges have been experienced in not only in attracting more customers but also retaining their existing clients, a factor which has continued to hurt the sector turnovers. Additionally, there have also been concerns over rising levels of inefficiency in the operations of Kenya’s insurance sector, a factor that has adversely hurt not only their ability to generate revenue but has also hindered their momentum of growth. This study sought to determine the effect of competitive strategies on performance insurance companies in Nyeri County, Kenya. The specific objectives were: to determine the effect of cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, focus cost strategy and focus differentiation strategy on the performance of insurance firms. The study was anchored on Porter’s Five Forces Model, Dynamic Capabilities Theory and the Resource-Based View Theory. A census study approach was used to subject all the twenty (25) insurance companies operating in the county to study. Purposive sampling was used to identify the respondents who included branch managers, finance officers, marketing managers, claims managers and actuaries of all the insurance firms being studied. This procedure led to a total of 125 respondents. The study assessed non-financial performance of the insurance companies for 5 financial years 2014-2018. Primary data was collected through questionnaires while secondary data was gathered using a document review guide to review financial statements, management reports and other key publications in the company. Validity was tested using pretesting and expert opinion. Reliability of the instrument was assessed using Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability test which evaluates internal consistency status. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the analysis. The Pearson correlation analysis results established that all the independent variables (cost leadership, differentiation, focus cost and focus differentiation strategies) were positively and significantly related with organisational performance. The Coefficient of Determination (R Square) demonstrated that 64.0 per cent of variation in organisational performance was influenced by variation in the independent variable that is competitive strategies and its constituent variables. The results of the multiple linear regression analysis showed that all the independent variables; cost leadership, differentiation, focus cost and focus differentiation have a positive effect on organisational performance. Thus a conclusion was made that pursuit of competitive strategies delivers positive results to the organisation. The study recommends that insurance companies work on improvement of the adoption of proprietary technology and innovative distribution channels for products which were found to be only moderately entrenched. This could be limiting their efficiency in effectively controlling the operating and distribution costs. A recommendation is further given that differentiation of the premise of technology be enhanced to improve the performance of insurance firms.
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    Strategic Outsourcing and Service Delivery: A Case of Kericho Water and Sanitation Company (KEWASCO) in Kenya.
    (Kenyatta University, 2021) Edna, Bii Chepkoech; Mary Namusonge
    The current scarcity of public resources in world economies has led to adoption of strict measures to ensure efficiency in service delivery. The pressure to deliver more for less has steered managers to focus towards outsourcing strategy, which has attracted much attention in the recent years owing its important role of efficiency in service delivery across all sectors of economy. This study main aim is to establish the relationship between strategic outsourcing and service delivery at Kericho Water and Sanitation Company (KEWASCO) in Kenya. The study sought to determine effects of outsourcing security services, revenue collection and maintenance on service delivery. The research angered on four main theories: Agency Theory, Core competency Theory, Resource-Based View theory and Transaction cost theory. The study employed descriptive research design. This study targeted a population of 17232 KEWASCO stakeholders from which a representative sample size of 175 was chosen through various sampling techniques. First, purposeful sampling technique was applied on the company employees and water officials while clustering and stratified random sampling was applied on the organization’s customers. Questionnaires and interview guides formed main instruments for data collection. These methods were deemed appropriate as questionnaire use is time saving and flexible, and interviews allowed in-depth understanding of situation under study. Reliability and validity of data collection instruments was acquired through test-retest scenario where, similar result of reliability coefficient was obtained through pilot study. Data collected was then summarized for analysis, with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Data finding was then presented in frequency tables, percentages and means. Later inferential statistics including; Chi-square and regression were employed for analysis. Based on analysis, the study revealed that outsourced services by the water company had in many ways positively influence key performance indicators including; revenue collection efficiency, cost of production, reduced non-revenue water, consistent supply of quality water, as well as staff productivity. Therefore, study findings conclude that organization under study could be failing to meet the required service delivery targets because of other issues other than failure of the three outsourced functions. The study suggests that firms and in particular Kericho Water and Sanitation Company may consider outsourcing more of its non-core functions. This is because the three outsourced services under investigation in this study have proven to be fruitful in as far as the improvement of service delivery is concerned. The findings further recommend that organizations should review their outsourcing strategies to ensure competent service providers are awarded tenders. As it was found that non competent service providers in maintenance department had not fully offered quality service, resulting in regular pipe leakages and pump failures which led to frequent complaints from customers due to service interruption.