dc.contributor.author | Gachara, Hottensiah N | |
dc.contributor.author | Munjuri, Mercy G | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-07-24T07:51:04Z | |
dc.date.available | 2018-07-24T07:51:04Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2018 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Gachara HN, Munjuri MG. "INNOVATION CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED BY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN NAIROBI, KENYA." International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management. 2018;6(6):717-738. | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11295/103490 | |
dc.description.abstract | The current business environment is characterized by tough and unpredictable competitions. All
organizations, regardless of their size and scope of operation are faced with tough competition
challenges and in order for them to cope with this state of affai
rs, SMEs are turning to
innovation in order to stay afloat. Kenya has a sizeable SME sector that the government is
making efforts to grow and develop. Recent studies have looked at the effective factors which
are seen to lead to the increase in SME innovat
iveness and performance. However, there is still
a gap in knowledge that this study aimed at addressing by attempting to answer the question,
what innovation challenges do SMEs in Nairobi encounter? This study applied descriptive
research design and the ta
rget population was all the registered Small and Medium Enterprises
in Nairobi. The study employed purposive sampling technique where only 100 small and
medium enterprises listed in the top 100 medium sized companies in the East African region in
the year
2016 were picked as the sample. Data was collected using questionnaires and was
analyzed through Descriptive statistics such as percentages, means, frequencies and standard
deviation. One of the major findings of the study was that the level of innovativen
ess in the
businesses varies from one business to another, where, 41% of the businesses report to have
good innovation levels, 32% have average level, 19% are excellent in innovation while 8% are
poor. Regardless of the level of innovation, 45% of the bus
inesses still find innovation very
challenging, 37% of the businesses find innovation moderately challenging while the remaining
18% find innovation not challenging at all. The study further found out that several innovation challenges that affect SMEs in
Nairobi are knowledge based challenges, resource based
challenges, technological based challenges, legal and policy based challenges and
environmental based challenges. The study therefore recommended that SMEs should partner
with other large corporations
that offer varying services to jointly invest in common innovative
activities because doing so leads to cost reduction while achieving similar goals. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | University of Nairobi | en_US |
dc.rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States | * |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ | * |
dc.subject | Innovation Challenges, Small and Medium Enterprises, Performance, Kenya | en_US |
dc.title | Innovation challenges encountered by small and medium enterprises in Nairobi, Kenya | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |