The Role of Contingency Planning on Business Continuity During Covid-19 Pandemic Among Investment Banks in Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya the investment banking environment has been rapidly evolving posing a threat to the commercial banks’ operations. The current economic environment in Kenya is faced with the Covid-19 pandemic protocols, advanced technology and increased competition which has been a threat to the continuity of the operation of investment banks. To mitigate the threats, investment banks had adopted contingency planning as a way of improving the continuity of the firms, securing shareholders wealth and preventing likelihood of financial losses as well and creating a positive brand image, in case of occurrence of a risky incident. The primary goal of this study was to examine the impact of contingency planning on business continuity among Kenyan investment banks. The objectives utilized in giving guidance were; to establish the influence of organizational systems on business continuity and to establish the effect of organizational innovative culture on business continuity. This research adopted the environmental dependency theory and resource based theory. A descriptive research design was used. The 22 registered investment banks in Kenya served as the research population. The unit of analysis was 4 senior managers from each investment bank giving a total of 88 respondents. This research used primary data which was gathered through use of questionnaires. To administer the questionnaire, the researcher used Google forms. The data collected was then converted into quantitative format so as to enable analysis using the statistical package for social sciences. The data was analyzed both for descriptive statistics which encompassed mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics that comprised of multiple linear regression and correlation analysis. The study established a significant positive association amongst organizational systems and organizational innovative culture with business continuity among investment banks in Kenya. Regression analysis established that 55.5% of changes in business continuity among investment banks in Kenya were ascribed to the two variables selected in this study. In conclusion, organizational systems and organizational innovative culture are essential in enhancing business continuity. The study recommends that the management of investment banks in Kenya ought to consider enhancing their organizational systems such as recruitment systems, promotion systems and information systems to enhance business continuity. The study also recommends the need for investment banks to consider allowing employees to try new ways of solving job related problems, highly encourage innovation, consider customer information when developing new products and services and be highly flexible in their mode of operation.