Influence of Socio-cultural Factors on Student Transition and Retention in Schools in Msambweni Sub-county, Kwale County, Kenya

Abstract

Today’s business environment is fast changing, due to increasing globalization and rapid growth of the technologies, a change that makes organization to become more innovative in order to sustain their level of competitiveness. Technological innovation is one such strategy that an organization can adopt to shore up its competitiveness. The objective of the study was to determine the influence of technological innovation as a source of competitive advantage to M-KOPA Solar (K) Ltd. Towards the realization of the research objective; the researcher employed a case study research design in which specific informants that were deemed knowledgeable on the research subject matter were interviewed. The interviewees consisted of one director, chief managers, Project implementers, business development manager, Marketing manager and field manager. In total, the researcher interviewed six informants and the analysis was undertaken using a content analysis technique. The research findings suggest that M-Kopa recognizes customers as an important source of innovation knowledge and that majority of their technological innovations result from both internal and external stakeholders. The major technological innovations that have been adopted by the firm, and which have resulted in the firm increased level of competitiveness include solar energy generated LED lights, SIM card embedded in the M-Kopa control unit and the flexibility of the mobile payment system like the M-Pesa. Generally, the findings reveal that indeed adoption of technological innovation by M-KOPA Solar had resulted in improved performance of the firm which can be attributed to improved competitiveness. The study was limited in terms of the informants and it will be suggested that more interviewees should involved in future studies. The research recommends that training on applicability of innovation strategies should be planned to equip the project staff on the usefulness of technological innovation tools to improve the realization of organization objectives. In addition, the research reinforces to gain stakeholder support in a firms technological process to limit resistances during implementation.