The Effect of Innovation Strategies on Market Share of Small Scale Tea Packers in Kenya

Abstract

The tea industry is progressively facing intensified competition making all players in the industry to draft superior strategies to beat competition. Growth is driven by innovation in the business environment. The country’s business system is not as innovative a fact that is greatly seen by the number of imitations happening in the market. The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of innovation strategies adopted by small scale tea packers to beat competition for market share. The objectives were to determine the drivers of tea marketing in Kenya and to assess the success rate of innovation strategies in growing the market share for tea packers. This study adopted a descriptive research approach. The target population of the study consisted of 100 active small scale tea packers in Kenya. A purposive sample of 50 tea packers was used in the study. The study used primary data from the enterprises whereas secondary data was obtained from Tea Directorate. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. For this study, the data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics. The data was analysed qualitatively with the aim of ascertaining common themes from the responses provided by the respondents. The statistical test to determine the influence of an independent variable against the dependent variable was analysed through correlation and regression. The study found that most of organizations are privately owned and have been in existence for 11 to 15 years and averagely have employed employees between 20 and 30 where most of them have a low asset value. The study also that found that technological innovation product innovation, process innovation and marketing innovation affects market share of small scale tea packers in Kenya positively and significantly. The study concludes that marketing innovation had the greatest effect on the market share of small scale tea packers in Kenya, followed by technological innovation, then product innovation while process innovation had the least effect to the market share of small scale tea packers in Kenya. The study recommends that the government should offer support to all firms by ensuring good policies that promote availability of affordable credit and training of SMEs in enterprise and innovations management. The study also recommends that common user facilities could be established so that small scale tea packers could deploy resources away from fixed assets towards innovative marketing and business development initiatives. The study further recommends that through the different types of innovation strategies they should expand into new markets and identify products that can help them compete within the established markets.