Strategic Management Practices and Performance of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya

Abstract

Outsourced logistics have become a popular approach for improving operational performance in the manufacturing sector. The ideal scenario is that a firm will focus only on its core activities and contract non-core activities to third parties thereby improving operational performance. This research aimed to find out the effect of outsourced logistics on operational performance among Kenya’s manufanctring SMEs. The study used a survey design. Survey questionnaires were issued to 50 firms in Industrial Area, Nairobi through purposive sampling. A response rate of 82% was achieved from the ‘drop and pick’ method used to administer questionnaires. This primary data was analysed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The data was presented in the form of tables and figures. The findings revealed that SMEs in Kenya’s manufactring sector have low adoption rates for logistics outsourcing practices, which include transport and distribition, inventory management, packaging activities, warehousing activties and information management services. This is except for information management services, which are outsourced at a high level. There is also high variation on the extent to which each practice is outsourced by the different firms. The study also established no significant relationship between outsourced logistics and operational performance of manufanctirng SMEs in Kenya. This leads to a recommendation against fully outsourcing logistics as a way of improving level of innovation and operational flexibility. Further, the study recommends SMEs should take the alternative approach of improving both core and non-core activties internally.