Innovation Strategies and Performance of Agrochemical Companies in Nairobi County

Abstract

The “objective of the study was to establish the effects of innovation strategies on the performance of agrochemical firms in Nairobi County. The study sought to determine the effect of product, technological, marketing and process innovations on the performance of agrochemical companies in Nairobi County. This study employed “a descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study was the agrochemical firms in Nairobi who are listed as full members of Agrochemicals Association of Kenya. Since the population was small, the study was a census where all the 58 agrochemical firms in Nairobi were considered. Primary data was used in the study was collected from the respondents with the use of a semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics inferential statistics were used to analyze with aid of SPSS. The study concludes that there was a strong relationship (R-value = 0.532) between innovation strategies and organizational performance of agrochemical firms in Nairobi with innovation strategies explaining 21.4% of the total variance in the organizational performance of agrochemical firms in Nairobi. The study also concluded that product, technological, marketing and process innovations strategies have a positive effect on the organizational performance of agrochemical firms in Nairobi with marketing innovation strategy being the only one influencing the organization performance significantly. The concluded that agrochemical firms in Nairobi face innovation challenges to a moderate extent with high costs of developing new products, high cost of implementing new strategies, inadequate technological infrastructure, shortage of expertise, rigid regulating practice that discourages innovation, lack of a research and development department, lack of avenues to share innovative ideas and lack of top management support being the most faced challenges. The management of the agrochemical firms in Nairobi should set aside adequate budget to establish proper technological infrastructure, hire qualified experts, create avenues to share innovative ideas, set up a R&D department and create a conducive environment for innovation. The Government should create a business environment that encourages and supports innovation in the agrochemical sector.” This should be in form of offering tax exemptions on the technologies required come up with more innovative products and relaxing the rigid regulating practices that discourages innovation. In future, a similar study should be done considering all the 47 counties in Kenya and with a focus on other sectors other than the agro-chemical sector.