| dc.description.abstract | The study sought to investigate the factors that contributed to the AccessKenya Group alliance
and also to investigate the challenges of the strategic alliance faced by AccessKenya Group, and
establish how they counter these challenges.
The study used a descriptive case study design.This design was chosen because it enabled the
researcher to find out the effect of the strategic alliance without influencing or affecting the
organization's normal behaviour. This study targeted 25 managers and 10 senior administrative
staff. From the target population, a sample of 10 respondents made up of managers and the
senior staff was chosen using stratified sampling technique. Primary data was obtained by use of
a questionnaire which was administered to the respondents, while secondary data was collected
from publications, journals and other write ups available on the topic of study. The quantitative
data was entered into the computer and then analyzed using the statistical package for social
sciences (SPSS) computer programme. Data was presented in form of Tables and charts for ease
of understanding and interpreted using frequencies, percentages and mean scores.
The study found out that the factors that contributed to AccessKenya's group alliance were to
broaden the partner's strategic options, to add value to the partnering firms by creating an
organizational mechanism that better aligns decision authority with decision knowledge, it was a
means to an end, to reduce operation costs, to allow the capture of new developments without a
major investment, to provide the opportunity to upgrade both firms positions more rapidly than
individually, through pooling of resources and capabilities, and also to allow entry into new
business more easily and cost effectively.
There were also challenges of the strategic alliance which included each party reserving certain
key proprietary knowledge so as to preserve its competitive advantage, lack of confidence in
each other to commit valuable know-how, the risk that one partner would take advantage of
another partners commitment and trust, lack of sensitivity to each other's cultures in the joint
operation and unexpected developments. In general, the alliance cooperation was good and the
success rate of the strategic alliance at AccessKenya was high. In order to deal with the
challenges, the company looked at the reputation of the partner and the people involved in
alliance before entering into the alliance, how long the partner had been in business \experience
of the partner), whether the relationship was going to be formalized - agreements, legal structure,
the damage that could be done to the business if the alliance goes wrong and also the company
defined who would be contributing what, the terms, conditions, limitations, and expectations of
the strategic alliance. | en |
