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Abstract:
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The purpose of the study is to establish how adoption of strategic management practices has affected the performance of youth managed SMEs in Kenya. A lot of existing literature agrees that there exists a significant, positive relationship between strategic management practices and organizational performance. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in Kenya cut across all sectors of the economy and provide one of the main sources of employment and generate widespread economic benefits. SMEs however, face a lot of challenges that mainly relate to their smallness and this can be mitigated against by being strategic. Strategic management enables firms to formulate comprehensive strategy which is important for survival in a dynamic and competitive environment. Strategic management practices enable a firm to become aware of when, where and how it should compete. The study was cross sectional in nature and it targeted 112 SMEs that are owned by youths. The findings of the study show that those SMEs that adopted strategic management practices are more successful than the ones that have not. Further results indicate that strategic management practices have been adopted by many SMEs. However, few implement the strategic plans which they formulated.
The findings of this study will add to the existing body of literature on the strategic management practices of micro-enterprises and youth managed micro-enterprises in particular. This research study will also be of significance to the youth who manage micro enterprises and to the government, financial institutions and other major stakeholders. |