Strategic responses to changes in the environment by real estate firms in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Organizations depend on the environment for resources input and produce goods or services for the consumption by environment. They take in an assortment of resources from the environment, add value to them, and deliver them back to the environment in the form of goods and services. Thus organizations are not self sufficient but are environment dependent and environment serving. There have been considerable changes in the external environment over the last 10 years. These changes have had a great impact on all the industries. This research project was a cross sectional survey designed to establish the strategic responses to changes in the environment by real estate firms in Nairobi, Kenya. To achieve this, questionnaires were dropped to 72 firms that were operating in Nairobi. The study established major favorable changes that had taken place and among them were improved infrastructure and availability of credit through various financial institutions. The major unfavorable changes that had taken place among them were post election violence (PEV) and election uncertainty. The study established that the industry had responded to those changes through adherence to government regulations and legislation, introduction of new products in the property market and initiating of new distribution channels. The study established that the strategies adopted were successful because they had made the firms to continue to thrive despite many challenging environmental changes. The industry was found to be dependent on the environment for resources and also offered services to the same environment. The study recommends that the industry should embrace more of information technology and also the government should put in place a mechanism as the industry players were both registered and unregistered estate agents.