Is there a Link between Supply Chain Strategies and Performance of Large-Scale Manufacturing Firms in Kenya?

Abstract

Both supply chain strategies and supply chain performance areevolving areas of research. Most research findings on the relationshipbetween supply chain strategies and supply chain performance havebeen contradicting but no attempt to clear the contradictions. Thepurpose of this paper is to establish the relationship between supplychain strategies and supply chain performance outcome among largescale manufacturing firms in Kenya. This was at firm level as theunit of analysis, using the Resource Based View theoreticalunderpinning.    A sample of one hundred and thirty eight (138) firms was drawnusing proportionate sampling from a total population of six hundredand twenty seven (627) large scale manufacturing firms in Kenya.The response rate was seventy five percent. Descriptive statistics,reliability and validity tests of the constructs, correlation analysis, factoranalysis and regression analysis models were used to test thehypotheses. Preliminary tests employed Kaiser Mayer-Olkim (KMO)and Barlett ' s test. The study ' s KMO measure is 0.849, a valueindicating sampling adequacy as the Barlett ' s test of sphericity issignificant with its associated probability is less than 0.00.The findings indicated that there is a strong and significant relationshipbetween supply chain strategy and the firm ' s supply chainperformance, where supply chain strategies alone are able to explain51.3 percent of variance in the firm ' s supply chain performance.The study suggested on future research considerations for additionalvariables, external validity and qualitative research approach aimedat extending the research.Keywords: Supply chain management, supply chain strategies andsupply chain performance