The relationship between entrepreneurial training and organisational performance of government-funded youth group enterprises in Taita Taveta County, Kenya.

Abstract

Intense competitive pressures have forced firms to go beyond their neighbourhoods to achieve competitive advantage. A feasible course of action for firms is embracing supply chain integration. However, there is concern on whether competitive advantage has a mediating role on the link connecting supply chain integration to firm performance. This study endeavoured to explore this link. It was anchored on resource-based view theory. A cross-sectional descriptive research design was applied with primary data. The respondents of the study were persons who were in charge of the supply chain function in the sampled firms. From a sample size of 200 firms, 94 usable questionnaires were obtained resulting in a response proportion of 47%. The main data analysis method was PLS-SEM. The links connecting supply chain integration to competitive advantage and competitive advantage to firm performance were both found to be significant. The overall outcome of the mediation analysis was that there was a significant partial complementary mediating influence of competitive advantage on the connection linking supply chain integration to company performance. This helps to settle the debate to some extent on whether it is fruitful for companies to integrate their supply chain operations. These outcomes are also in congruence with resource-based perspective in the sense that integrating internal operations can be regarded as a rare, non-substitutable, valuable and imperfectly imitable resource. The study findings will also be useful to policy makers in developing appropriate legislations such as protection of copyrights and patents. Moreover, the findings of the study are expected to provide directions to scholars on the possible influence of supply chain integration on organisational performance with the possibility of competitive advantage acting as a mediating variable. This is particularly pertinent in the context of the developing world where such studies are scarce.