Restructuring Kenyan Micro And Small Enterprises For Manufacturing Advantageous Food Products In A Globally Competitive Landscape.

Abstract

Restructuring food manufacturing industry is one of the key strategies prioritized by Kenya to deliver the country’s ambitious economic growth and feeding the soaring population, past 40 million people. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if restructuring Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in food manufacturing along competitiveness and innovativeness would enable the MSEs make advantageous products at the global market. A survey was done on 132 (MSEs) in Busia and Nairobi using semi structured questionnaires. The Cronbach’s alpha found reliability of questionnaires to be at 0.97, an excellent internal consistency of the items. Due to weak information management system of agro-food processors in Busia County, snowballing sampling techniques was used. Fisher sampling techniques was applied on Nairobi County Government given its numerous food manufacturing enterprises. Data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) by Amos version 21. It showed that the three of forces of Porter’s competitive model causal path was more meaningful than Davis predictors. However, a hybrid of Porter’s and Davis forces gave a better model. According to the model, buyers bargaining power, rivalry from incumbent competitors, perceived ease of use and usefulness formed the best model for MSEs in agro-food manufacturing. The study recommended that stakeholders in agro-food industry should restructure the MSE’s manufacturing processes to address the modern customers’ sophisticated demands and competitors’ complexities. Secondly, technology fabricators should design food manufacturing systems that are ease and useful to the MSEs. Finally the study recommended that a food and beverage administration authority be established to assist food manufacturers borrowing from Singaporean models.