Factors affecting the adoption of Business process outsourcing in Kenya's mobile phone companies
Abstract
This research is concern with investigating the factors that affect adoption of Business
Process Outsourcing in mobile phone companies in Kenya. The study was motivated by
the low level of Business Process Outsourcing adoption in these companies amidst high
operations cost and shrinking profitability as reported by Communication Commission of
Kenya (CCK). The study had three objectives: to determine the extent of Business Process
Outsourcing adoption, to establish the enablers of Business Process Outsourcing adoption
and to establish the barriers of Business Process Outsourcing adoption by mobile phone
companies in Kenya.
Twenty eight questionnaires were administered to employees of the four Mobile phone
companies in Kenya. In addition there were four interviews. The respondents were
selected using stratified and judgmental sampling. The respondents were departmental
heads from each of the four companies and interview was administered to individuals with
vast experience about the organization and was involved in the company’s decision
making. Data collected from the questionnaires was analyzed using descriptive statistics
and presented using frequency tables. Where data collected from the interviews was
analyzed using content analysis. The findings from the study indicate that adoption of
Business Process Outsourcing has been adopted by these companies to a very small extent
as most of the services produced a mean of more than 2.5. The key enablers to adoption of
Business Process Outsourcing were: quality, security & trust to information and
profitability. Whereas the main factors that pose as challenges included: cost of Business
Process Outsourcing, sales and marketing barriers
In view of the findings, several recommendations were made which may be useful for key
decision makers in the mobile phone sector. Mobile phone companies should see adoption
of Business Process Outsourcing as a long term investment rather than as a short term
investment. In addition there is need for key decision makers to realize that most of the
vendors provide security and confidentiality to client information.
Sponsorhip
University of NairobiPublisher
School of business