| dc.description.abstract | The main purpose of the study was to determine the influence of various institutional factors on innovation of technological products and processes in Kenya’s telecommunications sector. The study was guided by five research objectives: to assess how institutional structure affects innovation of technological products and processes, to analyse how employees’ characteristic impacts innovation of technological products and processes, to examine the influence of financial resources on innovation of technological products and processes, to determine how knowledge management influences innovation of technological products and processes and to establish the influence of leadership style on innovation of technological products and processes, in Kenya’s telecommunications sector. The study used a cross-sectional research design to collect data from firms sampled from a list of telecommunications network facilities providers registered in the Communications Authority of Kenya’s register of Unified Licensing Framework Licensees. A sample of 35 firms was selected for the study. A questionnaire based on reviewed literature was used for the research and an interview schedule for triangulation purpose. The data is presented in form of graphs, tables and texts. ANOVA was used to test for significance of the influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable at α=0.05. The study findings revealed that organizational structure, employees’ characteristics, financial resources, knowledge management and leadership style had a statistically significant impact on innovation of technological products and processes in the case of firms in the telecommunication sector in Kenya (p-value=0.001, 0.003, 0.004, 0.002 and 0.004 respectively) . Based on the results of the study telecommunications firms may develop better strategies to improve their innovation capabilities. The study recommendations are that the firms should: Firstly, create institutional structures that not only encourage ideas from everyone within the firms but also decentralize decision making and encourages consultation across the firm. Secondly, continue the use performance rewards and incentives and empowering employees through relevant training. Thirdly, allocate slack financial resources towards innovation. Fourthly, increase the use of knowledge repositories and create strong linkages with other institutions and continue seeking customer feedback on the use of firm’s products and processes. Fifthly, Encourage managers to take greater risks and become more aggressive and bold in exploiting new opportunities. At the national level the results may be applied to shape innovation policies. | en_US |
