Tharamba, Faith Kendi2026-03-192026-03-192025-10https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/32811A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business, Economics and Tourism in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration (Strategic Management) of Kenyatta University, October 2025. Supervisor 1. Dr. Mary RaguiNon-financial performance indicators have become crucial in assessing organizational performance. They are superior indicators of the future success of an organization thus guiding managers in decision making. The motive of the research was to examine the effect of strategic innovation strategies on the non-financial performance at Equity Bank, Nairobi County, Kenya. The specific objective was to ascertain how Equity Bank's non-financial performance in Nairobi County, Kenya, was affected by its process, product, market, and organizational innovation strategies. The diffusion theory, balanced scorecard model, Schumpeter's theory, and the resource-based view theory were the key guiding theories. A case study design was adopted. The 52 Equity Bank Branches in Nairobi County were included. A census was conducted whereby two respondents from each branch were targeted that is the two top level managers at the branch level resulting to a total of 104 respondents. But just 92 participants took part in the research. A hybrid questionnaire for data collection was used. To ensure its reliability and validity, a pretest was done involving 5 respondents. According to Mugenda & Mugenda (2003), a pre-test sample should range from 1% to 10% of the entire population which justifies the inclusion of 5 respondents in the pilot study. Inferential and descriptive statistics were deployed. Additionally, SPSS facilitated interpretation of the information gathered and presentation of results done in statistical measures. Equity Bank Kenya's product innovation strategies, such as mobile loans and the Equity app, received strong positive feedback, with high agreement (mean 4.24–4.63) on improving customer accessibility, satisfaction, and employee performance. Process innovations like online banking significantly enhanced efficiency (mean 4.45–4.70), though automated customer service scored lower (mean 3.57). Market innovation strategies, including personalized campaigns, were well-received (mean 4.45–4.70), but loyalty programs lagged (mean 3.29–3.43). On the other hand, organizational innovations like decentralized decision-making showed mixed results (mean 3.15–3.98), with risk management systems scoring moderately (mean 3.65). Innovation strategies collectively boosted non-financial outcomes, with high agreement on improved customer satisfaction (mean 4.68), employee satisfaction (mean 4.58), and customer growth (mean 4.47), but response time improvements were less consistent (mean 3.83). Apart from the descriptive statistics, the inferential statistics results were presented through the F-test and T-test. According to the F-test findings, there was a statistically insignificant connection between Equity Bank's non-financial performance and strategic innovation. The T-test results further confirmed that the product innovation strategy had a adverse and statistically insignificant connection with Equity Bank's non-financial performance. Market innovation strategy also had a negative and statistically insignificant connection with non-financial performance. Additionally, organizational innovation strategy had a positive and statistically insignificant association with non-financial performance. Nonetheless, there was a statistically significant and favorable connection between Equity Bank's non-financial performance and process innovation. The findings imply that adopting process innovation strategies such as online banking and automated customer service helped improve Equity Bank's performance. Therefore, Equity Bank should prioritize process innovation strategies over product, market, or organizational innovations to improve its non-financial performance. Policymakers should support the implementation of Internet banking and improve online banking to enhance transaction efficiency. According to the study results, banks should encourage self service in online banking platforms since it leads to improved customer satisfaction. Moreover, automated customer services should be utilized in banks to ease the workload of employees since they improve performance.enThesis