| dc.description.abstract | Organizational environments undergo catastrophic upheavals which lead to changes that
are so sudden and extensive that they alter the trajectories of entire industries, this
overwhelms the adaptive capacities of resilient organizations and seasoned managers.
This study sought to establish the strategic responses to environmental changes by
Agrochemical companies distributing products in Kenya. To do this, the study was
anchored on organization theories namely, open systems, contingency theory and
resource dependency theory and was guided by two objectives: to determine the
challenges faced by major agrochemical companies in distributing products in Kenya
and; to establish the response strategies adopted by the companies to the above
challenges. The study adopted a census survey design where a population of 54
companies registered with Agrochemical association of Kenya were targeted. Only 36
questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 67.9 %. Primary data was
collected using a structured questionnaire. The gathered data was analyzed using both
quantitative and qualitative techniques by application of descriptive statistics. Where
mean scores and frequencies were tabulated. The study found out that the main challenge
facing agrochemical companies were stakeholders environmental pressure groups,
regulatory changes and competition defined by the number of companies and products
competing in the market which were high. The study further found out that other
challenges were technological changes in the industry, counterfeit or illegal products
being sold in country. As a response a to the above challenges the study found out that
companies are launching green products , employing strategies like competitive
advantage in term of operation in containing costs and innovations I and changing
systems to align to market benchmarks. Those with global portfolio are taking advantage
of globalization to leverage of their location and position in the industry. The study
concludes that agrochemical companies should rethink their business strategy to align
them to market realities driven by stakeholders and environmental pressure groups and
that regulation are in place to protect the stakeholders but this should not be used as an
entry barrier. Agrochemical companies should endeavour to lobby the Government in
terms of regulatory framework and seek support in lobbying other stakeholders.
Agrochemical companies and other stakeholders should take charge of the industry to
weed out malpractices such counterfeit this call for concerted efforts for each
agrochemical company to take responsibility of own product distribution. The above
results agree with organisation theories used in the study. However, during the study
some limitations were experienced like the use of closed questions limited respondents on
information giving, the type of questions were strategic in nature and this could have
affected sincerity of the respondents and finally the study was only limited to
organisations who are member of agrochemical association of Kenya. Moreover, the
study reveals suggestions for further studies to find out the response strategies adopted
local companies vs foreign companies and how environmental issues affect cooperate
strategy and environmental fit of the portfolio. Further work need to be done to evaluate
the impact of environmental pressure groups and regulators on organisation strategy in
agrochemical industry and compared to other industries. | en_US |
