| dc.description.abstract | This research study was on the various competitive strategies adopted by small and medium
audit firms with specific focus to Nairobi City County. SMEs make important contribution to the
economy and social development of any country. Growth of SME sector does affect the
economic performance of any country. In all economies they contribute for the majority of
business settings and establishments and are responsible for creating one third to two third of the
turnover of private sector. Also are responsible for the majority of employment opportunities.
Out of all the registered firms in Kenya, SMEs comprise of 80% and accounts for 60 per cent of
the GDP. The ability of the SME to have this contribution to the economy is fundamental to their
sustained competitiveness. The study had two objectives. They were to establish the various
competitive strategies adopted or being applied by small and medium audit firms in Nairobi city
County and to determine the challenges encountered by SME audit firms while implementing
competitive strategies. The study used a descriptive research design, the major purpose of the
descriptive survey design was to describe the state of affairs as they existed in the audit industry
and obtain information that describe existing phenomena by analyzing a cross section of the
population and gathering data through questionnaire method. Primary data was collected from
108 small and medium audit firms using questionnaires. The drop and pick method as well as
mail survey method was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the
data. This included percentages, frequencies, bar graphs, pie charts,& tabulations. The study
concluded that most of the SMEs audit firms in Nairobi City County, had already adopted
competitive strategies to respond to ever changing customer needs and competitive marketing
nature where by Market penetration, Market development and differentiation strategy was the
key competitive strategy adopted by Majority SME audit firms with practice such as increasing
more sale to new audit clients, identifying new potential audit service users, and by allowing
service customization of offering tailor made services respectively being employed by majority
of SMEs audit firms. Further the study concluded that there were various challenges faced by
SME audit firms in Nairobi County in implementing the competitive strategies. Majority of
SMEs surveyed indicated that insufficient financial resources, need for more compliance by
regulatory body ICPAK, too many conflicting priorities, resistance to change, and poor
communication as challenges encountered when implementing competitive strategies. The
major limitation for this study was that the sample size taken for the study was small, only 108
SMEs audit firms out of 542 SMEs was surveyed. This reduces the reliability of the findings.
Therefore similar study should be carried but the researcher increase the sample Size. Secondly
the study aimed at establishing the competitive strategies adopted by SMEs audit firms
Specifically in Nairobi City County hence not advisable to generalize the findings for the audit
industry in Kenya. Future studies should cover several regions. Finally Organization adopts
various competitive strategies in order to outperform their competitors by getting above normal
return. This study did not link or associate the strategies with the SMEs performance. Finally the
study did not associate the strategies with SMES performance which is the ultimate aim of
employing competitive strategies. Therefore research should associate the competitive strategies
adopted to establish if indeed the strategies applied enables the organization to improve its
performance. | en_US |
