INNOVATION PRACTICES IN WOMEN OWNED SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESS ENTERPRISES IN BOMET COUNTY, KENYA
INNOVATION PRACTICES IN WOMEN OWNED SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESS ENTERPRISES IN BOMET COUNTY, KENYA
Benjo Joseph - Master of Business Administration (Entrepreneurship), Kenyatta University, Kenya
Evans Mwasiaji (PhD) - Lecturer, Department of Business Administration, Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Female entrepreneurs within the context of small and medium enterprises have been acknowledged for their significant contribution to household incomes, poverty reduction and growth of national economies around the world. Given the unique challenges encountered by women owned enterprises, some studies have concluded that there is need for contextualized data based promotion programmes geared towards addressing the needs and constraints faced by female owned enterprises. Numerous studies have also recommended that innovation is critical in enabling women owned small and medium enterprises adapt to the changes in the market place in line with consumer preferences, so as to achieve a competitive advantage and increase their financial performance. Other studies have however returned varied results indicating that even the best-formulated business model innovation may fail to result in enhanced organizational performance. This study therefore sought to examine innovation practices and performance of women owned enterprises in Bomet County, Kenya. The study was anchored on the Dynamic capacity theory, the Schumpeterian theory of innovation, and theory of innovative firm. The unit of analysis was female-owned enterprises in Bomet County, while the unit of observation identified using a combination of stratified and purposive sampling was 316 female business owners. Data generated using a structured questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics, while linear regression analysis was utilized in seeking to establish the nature of relationship between the study variables. This study with a response rate of 79.1%, established a positive relationship between process innovation, product innovation, business model innovation, management innovation and performance of women owned small and medium enterprises in Bomet County, Kenya. The position taken by this study therefore is that effective operationalization of the four innovations resulted in better performance using financial and non-financial measurement parameters. The study therefore recommends that there is need for women owned small and medium enterprises to adopt undertake stakeholder management to anchor the operationalization of innovation for continuous performance improvement based on the client preferences. There is also need for policy makers to put in place a more favorable legal framework to support and protect innovations. The expected study output is improved performance of female owned small and medium enterprises for social and economic development in the study locale.
