SUPPLY CHAIN ORIENTATION AND PERFORMANCE OF CLASSIFIED TOURISM ENTERPRISES IN KENYA
SUPPLY CHAIN ORIENTATION AND PERFORMANCE OF CLASSIFIED TOURISM ENTERPRISES IN KENYA
Elly Ochieng Osir - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Samuel Muli (Phd) - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Eric Namusonge (Phd) - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Tourism industry in Kenya have suffered difficult times over the years as a result of dull performance of enterprises in the 1990s, post-election violence that rocked the country in the year 2007/2008, global economic crisis in the year 2008, floods, poor climatic conditions, terrorism threats from Al-shabaab leading to loss of lives to both citizens and tourists; and travel bans that brought the country to its lowest point ever. As a result, proactive enterprises have embraced supply chain orientation (SCO) as one of supply chain ambidexterity (SCX) practices well known for delivering enhanced performance to enterprises operating in a complex, hyperdynamic and hypercompetitive business environment manifested in the tourism industry in Kenya. SCO amplifies performance by making a simultaneous pursuit of exploitation and explorations supply chain paradigms which enables enterprises to exploit existing knowledge and resources; and explores new innovations, opportunism and ideas; all with a view of heightening competitiveness and adaptive capability of enterprises. SCO facilitates performance by focusing on measures that include: supply chain design, personnel competency and performance measurement. This thesis was anchored on resource-based theory; and employed a mixed research design in conducting stratified sampling targeting a population of 594 respondents made up of supply chain managers, finance managers and food and beverage managers; in each and every classified tourism enterprise in Kenya. Both primary and secondary data were collected. Structured research instrument was used to collect primary data. Construct validity method was applied in testing the adequacy of the research instrument. Further, pilot testing was conducted on data collection instruments upon which it was established that the instruments were reliable and valid. Data collected was analyzed with the help of statistical packages for social sciences version 24. Thus, by employing supply chain supply chain design, personnel competency and performance measurement as predictors; with supply chain maturity level as a moderating variable; this thesis established the influence of SCO on performance of classified tourism enterprises in Kenya. From these results, it was found that SCO have a significant influence on performance of classified tourism enterprises in Kenya. Besides, supply chain maturity level was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between predictor variables and response variables. The study accentuated the need for classified tourism enterprises to enhance the uptake of SCO and other SCX practices to enhance their performance.
