Interventions, Entrepreneurial Orientation, Macro Environment and Beneficiary Poverty Reduction by Faith-Based Enterprises Within Slums of Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

This study focuses on Faith-based entrepreneurship (Faith-based enterprises - FBEs) in beneficiary poverty reduction within the slums of Nairobi. In Kenya, about 60 - 70% of the people in Nairobi live in slums and conditions are deplorable. The slums poor are trapped in extreme poverty with various social welfare deprivations. Hence, FBEs come in many aspects to address the social welfare voids with provisions for shelter, water, health services, education and employment amongst others. Despite these noble efforts, there are divergent views on relationships between the constructs of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Macro Environment and Interventions in beneficiary poverty reduction by FBEs with incomplete information to explain success or failure in delivery of social value. Hinged on these gaps and the disputable issues in previous studies, the study sought to establish the effect of entrepreneurial orientation, Macro environment on the relationship between interventions and beneficiary poverty reduction by FBEs. To attain this, four objectives and the relative hypotheses were tested. The study is anchored on the theoretical underpinnings of social network, human capital, institutional and innovation theories. The study was a census and data collected from 72 FBEs distributed in the nine major slums of Nairobi. The study utilized a triangulated primary data collection method through structured questionnaire and interview guide for depth interviews in the organizations. The study uses the descriptive cross-sectional research design and data analysed using descriptive, inferential statistics and qualitatively. The study findings show the root causes of poverty in the slums of Nairobi as alcohol abuse, HIV/Aids and unemployment. The study results provide evidence that FBEs are engines for change exploitation to development that impact positively on the society livelihoods. The study establishes that most of the beneficiaries live in one of the worst-case poverty scenarios as their incomes are below World Bank poverty threshold of $1.90 per day. The study suggests the embedding of enterprise culture by FBEs for business approaches to create wealth as it may be a mitigation to these problems. Interventions had a significant positive effect on beneficiary poverty reduction; entrepreneurial orientation had a mediation effect on the relationship between Interventions and Beneficiary poverty reduction. The study found no moderation effect of Macro environment on the relationships between Interventions and Beneficiary poverty reduction as it was not statistically significant. In all, entrepreneurial orientation, Macro environment and interventions jointly applied is found to have greater outcome than the individual effect of the same variables on beneficiary poverty reduction by FBEs. The study contributes to literature as it exhibits that synergistic application of driving factors other than singly enhance competencies for optimal beneficiary poverty reduction. The findings indicate monitoring and evaluation is absent in most of the FBEs activities and need for practitioners to embed it in implementation plans to track poverty reduction progress. Further, trainings, innovativeness and networking were found to be main traits in the mobilization of resources. This adds value to social network theory as it explains why there are robust beneficiary poverty reduction activities in FBEs with resources and weak in those with less access to resources. However, the study suggests divergent views to human capital theory as it demonstrates that apart from the traditional flair for education and experience emphasis, an enterprise can deliver in social value based on relationships, trust and doing things differently by those involved despite their illiteracies. Pentecostalism and Catholicism FBEs with a geographical spread of 40.3 percent and 38.9 percent respectively are the main religious affiliations involved in beneficiary poverty reduction within slums of Nairobi. Future research could adopt the grounded theory approach for in-depth diverse set of concepts and theories that may emerge to better explain relationships between the study variables and beneficiary poverty reduction by FBEs.