TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND FIRM PERFORMANCE OF TYRE FIRMS IN KENYA

Abstract

In the last two decades, there has been an influx of new entrants in Kenyan tyre sector with key players being Kingsway Tyres Limited, Sameer Africa Limited as well as Auto Express Limited among others, which import quality and cheap tyres from Asian countries including China. With the purpose of ensuring transparence in top organizationsâ management and maintaining investorâs confidence, it is more essential for firms to avail potential insight on drivers of resources and organization trends. It is therefore important to understand whether the use of technological resource management plays a major role in firmsâ performance. This study used a descriptive research design. Moreover, the study population comprised of 170 heads of finance, human resource, sales and marketing, warehouse, IT and audit departments in 29 Kenyan tyre firms. Krejcie and Morgan sample size determination formula was deployed to determine the sample size. Moreover, stratified random sampling was employed to select a total of 118 individuals from study population. Primary data which was collected using questionnaires was deployed during the study. Questionnaire was employed to gather primary data. Questionnaire composed of close ended as well as open ended questions. Quantitative data was collected using close ended questions while qualitative data was obtained by employing open ended questions. Moreover, quantitative data was then analyzed using inferential as well as descriptive statistics through the support of SPSS version 22. Additionally, descriptive statistics concentrated on computation of percentages, frequency distribution, standard deviation and mean. Inferential statistic focused on multivariate regression analysis, which was deployed to determine an association between independent study variables and dependent study variable. Results were then given in tables as well as figures (pie charts and bar charts). The study found that technological resource management has positive as well as significant effect on firm performance of tyre firms in Kenya. The study recommends that the firm should adopt modern technology in order to ensure timely delivery of freight and goods, tracking and tracing of imported goods and monitor the progress of all shipment and enhance accuracy.