Business incubation practices adopted by the youth enterprise development fund and the financial performance of Youth-owned Enterprises in Kenya
View/ Open
Date
2020-11-25Author
Rambo, C. M.
Type
ArticleLanguage
en_USMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
n Kenya, Youth-Owned Enterprises (YOEs) create employment for youths and contributes to poverty reduction. Despite this, more than a third of start-up YOEs often fails before the third year of operation, resulting far-reaching consequences at all levels. Youth Enterprise Development Fund (the Fund) adopted a number of incubatory practices to increase YOEs’ longevity and financial performance. Even though a number of studies have evaluated the survival and financial performance of YOEs, none has been done in Kenya. The study anchored on the pragmatism school of thought, the cross-sectional design and mixed methods approach. Primary data were sourced in mid-2019, from 176 start-up YOEs financed by the Fund; and Officers of the Fund, among others. Key findingsshow that all the business incubation practices adopted by the Fund positively and significantly correlated with YOEs’ financial performance; with the correlation being strongest for entrepreneurship training (50.7%), followed by partnership linkages (42.0%), market access (40.7%), and infrastructure support (23.1%). Besides, all the incubation practices caused positive and significant effects on YOEs’ financial performance; while the regression model accounted for 44.1% of improvement in YOEs’ financial performance. The study concludes that business incubation practices adopted by the Fund significantly improved YOEs’ financial performance. This implies that: the Fund plays a crucial role in enterprise development; the incubation practices adopted by the Fund are insufficient; and that the Fund’s potential in enterprise development is yet to be exhausted. Efforts to strengthen the Fund should revamp the business incubation program with more strategies, among other measures.
URI
http://uonjournals.uonbi.ac.ke/ojs/index.php/DBAAMR/article/view/631/634http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/154445
Citation
Rambo, C. M. (2020). BUSINESS INCUBATION PRACTICES ADOPTED BY THE YOUTH ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT FUND AND THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF YOUTH-OWNED ENTERPRISES IN KENYA. DBA Africa Management Review, 10(5), 1-22.Publisher
DBA Africal Management Reviw