DRIVERS OF MARKET ACCESSIBILITY OF MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES’ IN KENYA (A CASE OF KAJIADO COUNTY)

Irene Kanyago

Msc Entrepreneurship,

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

Dr. David Kiarie Mburu

Procurement and Logistics Department,

Dedan Kimathi University of Technology

CITATION: Kanyago, I. & Mburu, D., K. (2018). Drivers of Market Accessibility of Micro and Small Enterprises’ in Kenya (A Case of Kajiado County). International Journal of Arts and Entrepreneurship. Vol. 7 (3) pp 1 – 38.

ABSTRACT

Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) have been having challenges accessing markets for their products. Entrepreneurs’ characteristics lead to the failure due to limited market accessibility which is inversely related, further, with smaller enterprises facing higher risks of limited accessibility than larger ones. Poor infrastructure especially for rural MSEs find that they are vulnerable to not accessing the market as the root cause of their stagnation. Most of these MSEs have not embraced ICT thus their market access is limited leading to a high mortality rate. Very limited studies have provided such research on MSEs in developing countries and even less in Kenya. The main purpose of this study was to establish drivers of market accessibility of MSEs products in Kenya. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: To find out the influence of entrepreneur characteristics on market accessibility of MSEs products in Kenya; To investigate the influence of infrastructure on market accessibility of MSEs products in Kenya; To examine the influence of information communication and technology on market accessibility of MSEs products in Kenya; To establish the effect of customer relationship management on market accessibility of MSEs products in Kenya. The study was built on the entrepreneurial theory, exchange relationships theory, market orientation theory and transactional theory. The target population of this study was 11000 MSEs, in Kajiado County. The primary data was gathered from the questionnaires of 75 respondents (entrepreneurs/ managers) of MSEs. The secondary data was obtained from published documents such as journals, periodicals, magazines and reports to supplement the primary data. A pilot study was conducted to pretest the validity and reliability of instruments for data collection. The data was analyzed by use of both qualitative and quantitative methods with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 and excel. The multiple regression analysis was used to establish the direction and strength of the relationship of the variables at 5% level of significance. The regression analysis show that infrastructure had the strongest positive (Pearson correlation coefficient =.779; p-value = .000< .05) influence on market accessibility of MSEs. In addition, entrepreneurial characteristics, ICT and customer relation management were positively correlated to market accessibility of MSEs with Pearson correlation coefficient of .677, .654 and .587 with p-values of .008<0.05, .010<0.05 and .019<0.05 respectively. The study established that infrastructure is the most significant factor. The study recommends for improvement in entrepreneurial skills through training and experience of running business. The level of education also helped most of the entrepreneurs to manage their businesses. Further, there is need to improve the key areas of infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity. The use of ICT especially on the social media network sites should be enhanced. The customer relation management is necessary for boosting market accessibility. They should have knowledge of local and foreign markets’ laws, norms and business practices that are important to access such markets. This study could not exhaust all the drivers of medium and small enterprises in Kenya. The study has contributed to the existing knowledge by establishing that entrepreneurial characteristic, customer relation management, infrastructure and ICT influence market accessibility of MSEs in the Kenyan context. A comparative study should be carried out to compare whether the findings also apply for MSEs in other areas in order to validate whether the findings can be generalized. This study used qualitative and quantitative techniques. An exploratory study would enrich findings because such a study would have a wide range of factors that influence market accessibility of MSEs addressed other than the ones identified in this study. Interaction effects should be investigated. The interaction effects may be re-examined at a later period because of the constant changes that take place in MSEs.

Key Terms; Enterprise, Marketing, Technology, Accessibility

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