Innovation Capability, Creativity, Technology And Performance Of Insurance Companies In Kenya

Abstract

Innovation capability, creativity and technology are three linked concepts and phenomena in an organization setting that have been at the principal point of a firm’s performance because in the present day competitive business environment, a firm needs to have an extensive capacity to create productive contents and enhance innovation capacity in order to improve its performance as it faces stiff competition from globalization effects. The major concentration of the study was based on investigating the influence of innovation capability, creativity and technology on Kenya insurance companies’ performance. The research has been descriptive, with all the insurance players in country being the study population. Though different studies had researched on the influence of innovation, creativity and technology on firm outcomes, limited studies have sought to link the three predictor variables to estimate the companies' success. The present research attempts to fill this existing gap. Data gathering was done using a semi structured questionnaire. Analysis was done using descriptive measures of mean and standard deviation. Linear regression analysis was carried out so as to establish statistically the performance of Kenya insurance firms as a consequence of effective implementation of technology, innovation and creativity. The study found that the insurance companies have a strong commitment to employee training and development thus improving the organizational capacity for innovation. R=0.645 established a positive connection between creativity, innovation, technology and performance. Correspondingly, study findings propose that innovation, creativity and technology contributes 41.6% (R2 =0.416) to the overall organization performance. In general, it was established that the regression model was significant and a good fit to predict the study variables since the p-value (p=0.000) is less than 5% significance level. Findings from the regression analysis also show that innovation (p=0.014) and creativity (P=0.000) were significant in influencing organization performance while technology (p=0.061) was found to be slightly above 5% significance level. The findings suggest that in order to shore up the insurance companies’ performance, employees should be encouraged to come up with ways of achieving organization goals and objectives by being creative and innovative. The findings also suggest that insurance companies have a combined data processing and communication system that enables it to react fast to changes in the operating environment.