The objective of the study was to establish the relationship between organizational learning and firm performance. The study used cross sectional descriptive research design. A descriptive cross-sectional design facilitated determination of relationship between organizational learning, and performance of firms in the insurance industry in Kenya. The population of interest in this study consisted of all the 45 insurance firms offering insurance cover in Kenya. This was a census study since the population was small. Both primary and secondary data were collected and used in the study. The data analysis was done using quantitative techniques. The data collected was first summarized, categorized and coded. Descriptive statistics were used. They consisted of frequency distributions, measures of central tendency (arithmetic mean, median, and mode). Regression models were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that organizational learning has a positive and statistically significant effect on firm performance in the case of return on assets, growth of market share and the overall firm performance. The study revealed that organizational learning has a significant influence on firm performance both when using return on assets and growth of market share as the dependent variable. Managers in the insurance industry can apply the findings of this study to develop internal capacity to work towards superior performance. Firms must embrace organizational learning as a key resources and this study can be used to demonstrate that it would be worth spending resources to engage in organizational learning.

The mandate of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) is to enable all Kenyans to access quality and affordable services. Consequently, NHIF accredited hospitals are positioned to facilitate the fulfilment of the said mandate, necessitating identification of competitive strategies employed by the hospitals for them to remain competitive. This study aimed at establishing the role of focus strategy on the performance of NHIF accredited hospitals within Kenya. A mixed research design was adopted based on non-experimental, descriptive and causal approaches taking into account both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The population of study comprised NHIF accredited hospitals with a bed capacity of 100 and above which stood at 150 hospitals as at July 2016. A sample of 109 hospitals was selected through stratified and convenient sampling techniques. Data was collected using semi structured questionnaires and interviewing schedules and administered to hospital administrators and CEO’s respectively of the sampled hospitals. Quantitative data collected from the questionnaires was analysed by the help of SPSS while the qualitative data from the CEOs was analysed using thematic content analysis. The results of the study revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the focus study and performance of hospitals based on the regression coefficient estimate found to be β= 0.646, P value of the coefficient estimate of the focus study which is less than 0.05 level of significance. The quantitative result was further validated by the CEOs responses that indicated that they focus on niche market that remained unexploited.

The broad objective of this study was to determine the joint influence of firm resources, organizational characteristics, and macro environment on export performance of small and medium manufacturing enterprises in Nairobi city county, Kenya. A conceptual model was developed, and from it, a hypothesis was formulated to test the joint influence of firm resources, organizational characteristics, and macro environment on export performance. The study is anchored on four theories; the Resource Based Theory, Porters Theory of competitive advantage, The Industrial Organization Theory and Firm Internationalization Theory. The research was a cross-sectional survey of 265 companies in Nairobi City County, chosen from a population of 853 companies. The unit of analysis was the SMME involved in exporting. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was used to evaluate internal consistency and homogeneity among the study variables. Out of the 265 firms sampled, 238 completed the questionnaire resulting in 89.1 percent response rate. The responses were then used to evaluate the hypothesis of the research. A level of five percent was chosen when testing the coefficients' importance. The findings from the hypothesis was that, jointly,firm resources,organizational characteristics and macro-environment influence export performance. The study has contributed to theory, policy, management and practice, industry and methodology. Based on the research results, the national and county governments need to formulate legislation and policies that promote the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, such as creating an appropriate atmosphere for SMMES to acquire credit and recommending appropriate and effective production processes. Further, stakeholders in export promotion should appreciate and place an emphasis on the importance and impact of the economic factor in the macro-environment to guide existing and potential investors in manufacturing and exporting sector. The research had certain constraints primarily due to the categorization of the enterprises by the various government agencies and stakeholders. The limitations however did not have significant effect on the findings. Future studies should address the scope and geographical coverage of SMMEs.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of macro-environmental factors on the relationship between firm resources and the export performance of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study was based on cross sectional research design. A total of 265 out of 853 firms formed the study sample. Data was collected via a structured questionnaire. The response rate was 89.1 percent. Descriptive statistics and inferential analysis (step wise bivariate and multiple regression) was used to achieve the study objective. A five percent level was preferred in testing significance of the coefficients. The findings revealed that macro-environmental factors significantly moderated the relationship between firm resources and the export performance of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Nairobi City County, Kenya. For the firm to improve its export performance, the study recommends that firms have to take stock of firm specific resource endowments and respond to changes in the macro environment within which they operate. Also, exporting organizations must match firm innovativeness levels to external environmental conditions and internal capabilities and structures.

This study sought to investigate if the strategic planning process has significant influence on the performance of accredited universities in Kenya. Beyond the strategic plan document, the intensity and formality with which the process of strategic planning is carried out, its extensiveness and inclusiveness, is a concern for organizations in the twenty first century. Performance of accredited universities was conceptualized into growth and ranking as guided by the world standard for performance of tertiary institution. The study is anchored on the institutional theory and contingency theory. This study is founded on the positivist philosophical orientation as it is founded on theory and it adopted a descriptive cross sectional survey design. The population of interest was all accredited universities in Kenya as at November 2016. The findings indicate a statistically significant direct relationship between strategic planning process and growth (F=2.605, p=0.047 and R 2 =.303) and with ranking (F=1.995, p=0.033 and R 2 =0.218). Engaging university stakeholders in the strategic planning process and focusing the energies of members on the seven key variables of the strategic planning process should be encouraged and enhanced while engaging in a strategic planning process that is formal, this is in an effort to ensure that formality is balanced with allowing room for creativity and avoid missing out on innovative approaches from members. Further research in to other industries with different performance measures and the use of longitudinal design are possible areas for further research to enhance generalization of current findings.