Strategic Management Practices and Performance of Farmer Based Deposit Taking Saccos in Kenya

Abstract

Savings and Credit Cooperatives provide financial intermediation services and have a lot of competition from other financial intermediaries like banks. Thus, the concept of strategic management and its practices are needed by Saccos in order to respond to changes both in their internal and external environment. The performance of farmer-based deposit-taking Saccos’ is concerning given that agriculture is the largest economic activity in Kenya and employs a majority of Kenyans. In a bid to remain competitive, the farmer-based deposit-taking Saccos’ have introduced various strategies such as mobile banking, branch network expansion, research, rebranding, enhanced marketing, enhanced efficiency and have introduced innovations in the manner in which they deliver their products and services. However, since the introduction of the new strategies various farmer-based deposit-taking Saccos have stopped operations. This raises the question of the effectiveness of the strategic management practices and how they affect performance. The aim of this academic project was to evaluate the manner in which strategic management practices such as environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy monitoring and evaluation affect performance. This study was guided by the resource-based theory, McKinsey 7S framework, and agency theory. The study used descriptive research design. The target population of the study were the farmer-based deposit-taking Saccos in Kenya. The study was able to sample 36 of the 49 Saccos. Data for the study was collected from the senior financial managers at the respective Saccos. The data was collected using questionnaires. Data was analysed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences. The study found that environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy monitoring and evaluation were used to a great extent as implied by means of 4.28, 4.26. 4.06, 4.43 respectively. The effect of environmental scanning on performance was found to be negative and statistically significant, as implied by coefficient of -1.047 and p-value 0.002. The effects of strategy formulation and strategy implementation on performance were found to be positive and statistically insignificant, as the beta coefficients were 0.359 and 0.460 with p-values of 0.260 and 0.098 respectively. The effect of strategy evaluation on monitoring and evaluation was found to be positive and statistically significant given that the beta coefficient was 0.363 and p-value was 0.042. The study concludes that only strategy monitoring and evaluation practices used by the Saccos was effective. The study recommends that the farmer-based deposit taking Saccos review their environmental scanning, strategy formulation and strategy implementation practices.