International Market Entry Strategies , Organizational Characteristics and the Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Kenya
Abstract
The study was on the influence of internatio
nal
market entry strategies on the
performance of manufacturing multinationals in
K
enya.
Mode of entry
into an
international market is the channel which
an
organization employs to gain entry to a
new international market. The choice for a particular entry
mode is a critical
determinant in the successful running of a foreign operation. Therefore, decisions of
how to enter a foreign market can have a si
gnificant impact on the results
.
The
descriptive
research design
was
used in this study
.
There are
213 Mul
tinational
Corporations in Kenya
out of which
108 firms
are in the manufacturing sector
.
The
study use
d
a questionnaire as the
preferred data collection tool and the r
esults
indicated that manufacturing multinationals used various international market
str
ategies to venture into business. Regressi
on results indicated that
entry strategies
had an influence on performance
(ROA)
of the firm.
The study concludes that
manufacturing multinational
firms used more than one
entry strategy to venture into
business t
o
probably
enhance the firm’s performance. It was poss
ible to conclude that
all
entry strategies had a
nega
tive
and significant relationship with performance of
firms
while organization characteristics had positive and significant relationship with
perform
ance
.
The study recommended that the multinationals firms to c
arry out
research on the
entry strategies before venturing into international market to ensure
they use the appropriate entry strategy to enhance the organization performance. The
study also rec
ommends that the management to evaluate the factors to consider when
choosing an entry strategy thoroughly so as to make sure they know the market very
well and that the management to evaluate the factors influencing
the choice of market
entry modes
. This
is to ensure that they choose the best mode