Relationship between Proactiveness and Growth of Top 100 Enterprises in Kenya
Abstract
Small and medium size enterprises continues to play an important role in the economic growth of most countries. Notably they have become imperative as a source of job creation; wealth creation and capital creation. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) also act as supplier of goods and services for large organizations. While SMEs play a significant role in the economy, managers of successful organizations are faced with rapidly changing and fast paced environments. The disruptive and turbulent environment forces the managers to be entrepreneurial as they fulfills the demanding role of enhancing performance contingent on the ever changing environment. Similarly, many SMEs have failed to appreciate the role of industry experience and thus a slow growth hence lacking competitive advantage in the ever changing business environment. The study endeavored to determine relationship between proactiveness and the growth of Top 100 Enterprises in Kenya. Descriptive approach was adopted in order to describe the data and characteristics about the population. The target population comprised of 287 middle-sized companies who were the Top 100 KPMG feted enterprises in Kenya in the year 2010 - 2015. Stratified random sampling was used to select the 164 managers who formed the sample size for the study. Questionnaires were used to collect the data and analysed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Findings indicated that proactiveness had a positive and significant effect on growth. This was supported by a significance level of (B=0.18, p=0.000). The study concluded that proactiveness leads antedate imminent prospects, both in terms of products or technologies as well as in markets and consumer demand. It brings about change in an environment by predicting trends through the exploration of opportunities, hence the introduction of new products and services.
Keywords: Proactiveness, Growth, Top 100 Enterprise and Small and Medium Enterprises.
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