Effect of supplier relationship management on operational performance of beach hotels in Mombasa County, Kenya

Abstract

This study was focused on determining the effect of supplier relationship management on the beach hotels in Mombasa County, Kenya. It is evident from previous researches done that purchasing as a function was not given much priority in the earlier times. However in the recent years, due to globalization and diversification of customer needs purchasing has become a significant function within the supply chain and organization as a whole. This has led to vast research being carried out in order to implement and improve on the relationship between the buyer and the supplier. Moeller, Fassnacht and Klose (2006) have given the definition for supplier relationship management as a continuous process of carrying out activities which create, build and maintain relationships with suppliers. The research design adopted was a Census Survey research which included all the 42 beach hotels within Mombasa County. Data collection was using questionnaires which were administered using the drop and pick method. Questionnaire reliability was tested using the Cronbach’s Alpha test. The computerized packages namely Microsoft Excel and SPSS were utilized in carrying out the data analysis. The ANOVA analysis, and multiple regression analysis were both used to find out the correlation between the supplier relationship management practices and operational performance of the beach hotels in Mombasa County. The findings were presented in figures and tables. From the findings, it was seen that there was a relationship between supplier relationship management practices and operational performance. The study focused around five supplier relationship management practices, namely, Purchasing Strategies, Supplier Selection, Contract Management, Vendor Buyer Trust Relationship and ICT. The study found that the most adopted supplier relationship management practice was Vendor Buyer Trust Relationship, whereas ICT was the least adopted practice. The study only focused on the beach hotels in Mombasa County. Accordingly, the researcher recommends further research on all hotels within Mombasa County, and not specifically beach hotels, also a research that is focused on the different counties within Kenya is a suggestion for further research. The researcher has also recommended that all hotels should adopt supplier relationship management practices in order to achieve competitiveness and increase operational performance of their organizations.