Competitive strategies and performance of project based Non-Governmental Organizations in Kenya

Abstract

Organizations that fail to reform themselves with an aim of achieving accountability, efficiency and superior influence in a gradually more global competitive environment are bound to die a natural death. Inspired by this assertion supported by several other findings as will be hereby reviewed, the present study will thus be principally concerned with analyzing competitive strategies and its impact on the performance on Project based Non-Governmental Organizations (PBNGOs) in Kenya. Literature on PBNGO’s related to agency theory is virtually non-existent and rarely becomes applied to areas beyond board and executive compensation. The paper seeks to explore the characteristics and new twist in operations by PBNGO’s and the effects of fundamental constructs related to competition on the performance within these organizations. The study was grounded on the Resource-Based View and Principal agency theory. A census survey of all the 161 PBNGOs was conducted and data collected using a structured questionnaire. Thehypotheses of the study were tested by use of regression analyses. The study found a statistically significant and positive association between competitive strategies and organizational performance. Thus, PBNGOs are recommended to put in place competitivestrategies that will ensure they achieve their performance objectives efficiently. The study findings contribute to knowledge on the corporate governance of project-based NGOs arguing that PBNGOs perform better with a mix of competitive strategies. Further study was recommended on competitive strategies and organization performance of other NGOs in Kenya, in Africa and rest of the world to enable generalization of the study findings.