Development of business strategies of selected firms in the micro finance sector in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify the factors that affect the development of business strategies for select organisations in the microfinance sector in Kenya. The criteria used to select the organisations was determined by the origins of the institutions (purpose for which the institution was established), the current status of the institution and the organizational structure. The study sought to determine the following objectives: identify the factors that each individual organization identified as critical and affect the process of developing their individual strategies for entry and operations into the industry and shall examine some the challenges faced by all five institutions at inception; examine the factors that each individual institution takes into consideration to review the original strategy to suit the changing environment; and also reviewed some of the factors that the institutions regarded as critical in a bid to create and maintain a competitive advantage in a dynamic operating environment. Qualitative data was assessed in each of the contexts envisioned to exhaustively address the issues raised. Primary data was obtained using the personal interview method with key management within the five organizations and supplemented with secondary data from relevant publications. Analysis of the study was done using the factor analysis method and a report generated using SPSS software. The findings of the study indicate that the most prevalent factors that affect the development of the business strategies are cost of funds, geo political influences, value chain offerings, technological evolutions and exclusivity of the technologies for monitoring and evaluation purposes, level of literacy of the clientele, human resource and level of expertise. The institutions assessed the values of the factors named in differing magnitudes but these are the factors that stood out to be most the important and the ones that affect the development of business strategies.