Strategic Responses And The Performance Of Banks In Kimilili Sub-County, Bungoma County

Abstract

The aspect of making strategic decisions when it comes to organizations is what is essentially referred to as the practice of strategic management. There are various studies that have been done in order to enhance the understanding of the concept of strategic management. Based on the Central Bank of Kenya, Kenya has about 43 banks that are listed to operate in the form of commercial banks. It has been noted that the performance of the banks is significantly affected by the lack of having effective strategies that are capable of ensuring that the bank is capable of navigating through the problems/challenges/limitations that are found within the banking industry. Some of these challenges usually found within the banking industry include issues like competition. Competition is based on the inclusions of various banks within the market and thus increasing the level of competition for existing clients which has the potential of affecting the profitability of banks. To investigate the influence of stakeholder intervention as a strategic response on the performance of banks in Kenya. The study objectives were to: determine the influence of ICT deployment as a strategic response as a strategic response on the performance of banks in Kimilili sub county and to determine the influence of staff training as a strategic response on the performance of banks in Kimilili sub county. The study is going to be significant as it will have a contribution on the growing body of knowledge regarding the influence of strategic responses on the performance of banks. The findings of the study are also going to be important to the state as well as the policy makers and it will give a clear picture of the role of strategic responses on the performance of banks. The study will be based on open system theory and resource based theory. The study will use descriptive research design. The target population is 13 branch managers in 13 commercial banks in Kimilili sub county, Bungoma County. Data was collected through interview schedule and then subjected to content analysis. Based on the findings the study concluded that stakeholder engagement is essential for the banks though it does not increase the sales volume and profits and hence doesn’t affect the performance of the bank. The study also concluded based on the findings that ICT adoption is an effective strategy that the banks can use to spur performance. From the findings the study concluded that staff training is the commonly used strategic response by the banks and that they do have elaborate systems concerning staff training. From the findings staff training does not affect the performance of the banks. The study recommends that a study should be carried out to determine the influence of banking sector self-regulations on the performance of the banking industry. The researcher also recommends that a study can also be carried on the effect of financial resources on strategic response of banks