Intrapreneurial strategies and performance of public universities in Kenya
| dc.contributor.author | Otolo, Kanini Margaret | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-01-30T08:36:58Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-01-30T08:36:58Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-10 | |
| dc.description | A thesis submitted to the school of business, economics and tourism in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of degree of doctor of philosophy in business administration (entrepreneurship) of Kenyatta University, October 2024 Supervisors, Dr. Muathe S. Makau Dr. Kimencu Linda | |
| dc.description.abstract | The higher education sector produces intellectuals who drive a country’s economic development. Kenya has witnessed an exponential expansion in the number of public universities, enrolled students, and academic programmes over time. The government has implemented various education reforms to support public universities in terms of funding, quality and relevance, governance, research, innovation and technology uptake. Despite this, resources to maintain high operating standards, relevance, and achieve set objectives have not kept pace with the expansion. In addition, the government capitation to public universities has progressively declined. This compounded, has adversely affected their performance. Graduate employability has decreased by 4% overall margin annually since 2018, with 70% of all newly recruited graduates requiring retraining. Research output and innovation has declined. Kenyan publications rank in the lower quartile of global peer reviewed journals. Only 230 PhDs graduate against an annual benchmark of 2,400. Moreover, only one Kenyan public university was ranked in Webometrics among the top 1000 universities globally in 2023. Adoption of intrapreneurial strategies has been key for improved performance of public universities in developed countries. This study investigated the effect of intrapreneurial strategies on performance of public universities in Kenya. Specifically, the study investigated the effect of innovativeness, risk-taking, pro-activeness, and self-renewal on performance of public universities, and utilised organisational support and operating environment as mediating and moderating variables, respectively. The research was guided by Schumpeter innovation, opportunity-based entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial event, and resource-dependency theories. The study adhered to a positivist philosophy and employed descriptive and explanatory research designs. A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 20 public universities in Kenya, chosen using multi-stage sampling. An aggregate of 400 respondents of senior members of management picked from a population of 3600 was utilised as a unit of observation. The validity and reliability of the study instrument was tested using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, with a threshold set at 0.7 or above. With the help of SPSS Version 23, quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data was analysed using content analysis and the findings were expressed consistent with the themes and objectives. The response rate was 82% percent, which was sufficient for making inferences and drawing conclusions. To test the association amidst the dependent and independent variables, multiple regression models were utilised. Descriptive statistics were summarised using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. The study established a positive and significant relationship between innovativeness (β=0.146, p=0.013<0.05)), risk-taking (β=0.065, p=0.032<0.05), pro-activeness (β=0.163, p=0.023<0.05), self-renewal (β=0.446, p=0.000<0.05) and public universities’ performance; organisational support (β=0.760, p=0.000<0.05) partially mediates the relationship between intrapreneurial strategies and public universities’ performance; and operating environment (β=0.620, p=0.000<0.05) moderates the relationship between intrapreneurial strategies and public universities’ performance in Kenya. The study concluded that the adoption of intrapreneurial strategies improves the performance of public universities. The study recommends public universities to adopt innovativeness, pro-activeness, risk-taking, and self-renewal intrapreneurial strategies; and public university management to create an enabling environment for the adoption and integration of intrapreneurial strategies into the university’s core activities for improved performance. The study also recommends continuous training of staff in the adoption and use of modern technologies to improve productivity; and the government of Kenya and other relevant policymakers to institute reforms and organise forums to promote the adoption of intrapreneurship in public universities for improved performance | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Kenyatta University | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/29489 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Kenyatta University | |
| dc.title | Intrapreneurial strategies and performance of public universities in Kenya | |
| dc.type | Thesis |