dc.description.abstract | The study sought to determine how circular economy practices affect supply chain
performance of chemical and allied companies in Kenya. It equally conducted an
assessment of the challenges in adopting circular economy practices.The population of
the study was made up of all chemical and allied firms in Kenya (Appendix II). Primary
data was used in the study and structured questionnaire was used during collection. To
help generate inferential and descriptive statistics, statistical product for social scientists
(SPSS) was used. The finding was that circular economy practices significantly affect
supply chain performance of the chemical and allied manufacturing firms in Kenya (R2 =
0.882). The F-statistics equally implied that circular supplies, product extension,
resource recovery and product development reliably predict supply chain performance.
Finally, the regression co-efficients established that resource recovery and product
development significantly affect supply chain performance (β=.387, t=4.390, p<0.05;
β=.219, t=2.729, p<0.05) respectively while circular supplies and product extension were
insignificant on supply chain performance (β=.270, t=1.464, p>0.05; β=.041, t=.243,
p>0.05). The study also found out that circular supplies, product extension, resource
recovery and product development significantly and positively correlation with supply
chain performance (.894; .875, .898, .834) respectively. Regarding the challenges faced
by chemical and allied firms in adopting circular economy practices in Kenya, the study
found out that 25.5% of the companies experienced the challenge of inadequate
technology and cost implications in the short run while 12.8% of the companies faced
challenges of lack of appropriate regulations and inadequate government policies. The
study also found out that 10.6% of the companies faced the challenge of intense
competition while the challenge that was faced by the lowest number of companies was
low value of recovered material representing 4.3%.It was concluded that circular
economy practices significantly affect supply chain performance of the chemical and
allied manufacturing firms in Kenya. Specifically, circular supplies, product extension,
resource recovery and product development reliably predict supply chain performance. It
equally concluded that resource recovery and product development positively and
significantly affect supply chain performance while circular supplies and product
extension have positive but insignificant effect on supply chain performance. The
researcher recommends that management of chemical and allied manufacturing firms
should put in place mechanisms to facilitate improvement of circular economy practices
with respect to being environmentally-friendly in terms of operations. | en_US |