Response Strategies Adopted by Audit Firms Operating in Nairobi to Changing Operating Environment in Kenya

Abstract

The operating environment in which an organisation works assumes a key part in determining the organization‟s performance. Keeping in mind the end goal to keep up its competitiveness, an organisation needs to ceaselessly create proper response strategies that would encourage the arrangement of authoritative operations to the evolving environment. The fundamental goal of this study was to define and establish the response strategies employed by audit firms to changing operating environment in Kenya. The research work employed a cross-sectional descriptive research design since it cuts crosswise over various audit firms operating in Kenya. The populace of this study contained 819 enrolled audit firms working in Nairobi, Kenya as at September 2015. The study employed simple random sampling method to choose a specimen of 82 audit firms which speaks to 10% of the population. The research study utilized primary data to guarantee thorough accomplishment of the objective of the research. The required primary data was acquired from the field by utilization of a questionnaire. In request to appreciate the reactions and make surmising‟s, the surveys gathered from the field were coded and went into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS. 22.00) for analysis. The study found out that the audit firms had entered in collaborations, partnerships and business alliances with other organizations, audit firms had distinguished services for different customer segments, the audit firms had several service offerings to customers, invested in other industries supporting the operations of the company, had several services portfolios and involved in development of industry practices. The study concludes that response strategies can be a capable and in fact a fundamental instrument for fulfilling an organisation's key objectives through cooperation and sharing of resources. Response strategies can give a viable high ground in new markets, cost, speed and access of technology. The recommendations of the study are that in order to increase chances of creating competitive advantage, firms must follow a careful, well thought out process in strategy formulation through strategic conception to alliance termination. It is therefore critical to properly set the strategy for the alliance and to create an optimum organizational structure to ensure the strategic alliance strategy works, to establish clear governance structures and to monitor the results proactively.