Strategy Implementation And Performance Of Mobile-Commerce In Kenya’s Commercial Banks

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of strategy implementation on performance of mobile commerce (M-Commerce) in Kenya’s commercial banks. This study was based on the view that effective strategy implementation influences performance. The main objective of this study was to establish the strategy implementation influence of leadership, structure, information systems, human resources and strategy communication on m-commerce performance in Kenya’s commercial banks. The motivation of this study, was drawn from the fact that many banks in Kenya were investing heavily on the new technology m-commerce without much evidence of the success as demonstrated by other m-commerce service providers such as the mobile network operators in Kenya. Globally, mobile commerce initiatives have generated a lot of hype though some have ended up stagnating or failing completely. Strategy implementation failures have been estimated at between 50 and 80 percent. The high rate of failure is what motivated this study combined with the fact that there is limited research on strategy implementation and on m-commerce performance. In addition, the absence of a clear success in the m-commerce strategy in Kenya’s commercial banks, formed the basis for the need to establish the relationship between strategy implementation factors and m-commerce performance. The study adopted a multi-theoretical approach of the following theories: Resource Based View, Activity Theory, Expectancy Theory and was anchored on Agency Theory. Stratified random sampling technique was used to pick a sample of 133 managers from the target population of 200 from the commercial banks operating in Kenya at the end of December 2015. Data collection was done using structured questionnaires. For data collection method, the researcher recruited research assistants who dropped and picked the questionnaires from the banks. The response rate achieved was 84.76 percent. The research approach utilized positivism research philosophy and descriptive research design. The inferential analysis used in this study, was composed of factor analysis, correlation analysis, Chi square analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The major findings of the study were that strategy implementation variables: organizational leadership, organizational structure, information system and strategic communication were positively and significantly correlated with m-commerce performance. This therefore means the variables influence strategy implementation and m-commerce performance. The study findings also, demonstrated that there was insignificant relationship between human resource variable and m-commerce performance. The influence of human resource on m-commerce performance was negative and statistically insignificant. The conclusion was that the four variables: organizational leadership, organizational structure, information system and strategic communication influence m-commerce performance and that the human resources in the banking industry were no longer rare, inimitable but could be substituted and therefore does not influence strategy implementation and m-commerce performance. This is because bank staff are mobile in nature and that the skill sets that are important for strategy implementation may be lacking. The results will inform banks and key stakeholders on key variables that support the appropriate strategy implementation, the risk of not adopting the right strategy and highlight the opportunity in using m-commerce to provide services to new segments of customers that are currently not served by the current banking services. Additional contribution of this study is the development of measurement parameters of m-commerce performance in commercial banks.