Strategic Planning Practices and Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (Smes) Within the Micro Finance Sector in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), play a major role in economic development around the world. Previous studies pertinent to strategic planning and growth in SMEs have largely focused on particular elements in the strategic planning process and how the same influences SME performance. This includes large corporations and in the public sector, leaving the association between strategic planning and SME Growth particularly among Micro Finance Institutions largely unexplored. Against this background, the present study seeks to answer the question: What is the nature of strategic planning practices and how do they influence growth of SMEs within the micro-finance sector in Nairobi County? More specifically, the study sought to determine strategic planning practices by SMEs within the micro-finance sector in Nairobi County and to determine how such practices contribute to the growth of the SMEs. The study took an exploratory research design where the units of analysis comprised of small and medium enterprises within the micro-finance sector within the Nairobi County. The study involved a census study to cover all the nine (9) licensed Deposit Taking Micro-finance (DTM). Semistructured questionnaires were used to collect data at the premises of the sampled SMEs, using an administered questionnaire. In each of the nine DTMs, the researcher purposively administered the questionnaires to three respondents across the three management levels, i.e. top, middle and lower cadre for each micro-finance SME. This is because of the qualitative and quantitative nature of the study and information sought, both descriptive and inferential analysis was used for data analysis. Findings reveal that because of the qualitative and quantitative nature of the study and information sought, both descriptive and inferential analysis was used for data analysis. Results from ANOVA statistics further reveal that Growth among MFI SMEs in Nairobi County has a significant joint relationship with Mission, Vision, Strategies and Action Plans, Strategic Innovation Systems, Formality of Strategic Plans and Forecasting which is significant at 5 percent level of significance.