Linkages Between Small and Large Firms in the Kenyan Food Processing Sector

McCormick, Dorothy; Atieno, Rosemary

doi:10.4337/9781781951323.00021

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The literature has long emphasized the importance of linkages for enterprise development in Africa (Hirschman, 1958). It has been shown that the lack of dense industrial infrastructures available upstream and downstream in value chains constrain the growth of African SMEs by undermining specialization and by making access to inputs of goods and services expensive or impossible (Esuha & Fletcher, 2002;McCormick & Atieno, 2002;Hansen, 2014). The absence of industrial clusters furthermore restricts SMEs' opportunities to learn through collaboration with large enterprises, and limits horizontal joint actions and spillover effects (McCormick, 1999).…”

Section: Intermediaries and Linkagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What constitutes successful African enterprises? A survey of performance variations in 210 African food processors

Hansen

Ishengoma

Upadhyaya

2018

IJOEM

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Purpose To understand African small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) performance and its antecedents is essential, both from a strategic management and an industrial development perspective. While a substantial literature on African SMEs has emerged in recent years, studies of their performance specifically are few and inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to address this lacuna in the literature by examining variations in performance of 210 East African SMEs. Design/methodology/approach The paper employs OLS and logistic regression and Classify k-means test to analyze performance variations in a unique data set of 210 food processing enterprises in Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia. Findings Three generic types of African SMEs are identified based on performance: laggards, followers and gazelles. The gazelles are typically medium-sized, skill-intensive companies selling relatively differentiated products in niche markets. The laggards are typically small, capital-intensive companies involved in grain milling that adopt a cost differentiation strategy. A key driver of variation in performance is found to be the quality of the external business environment (in particular the quality of intermediary markets), and also capability factors such as the strength of management. Strategy factors such as differentiation and political strategies explain performance variations. Practical implications Among the policy implications are that African industrial policy should focus on improving the functioning of intermediary markets, e.g. by reducing the transaction costs of inter-firm collaboration. Moreover, rather than focusing industrial policy on SMEs per se, policymakers should focus on those types of enterprises that are capable of generating high performance, e.g. skill-intensive enterprises with strong managerial capabilities, engaged in differentiation strategies. Originality/value The paper integrates the extant literature on African SME performance, develops an analytical framework for studying it and presents novel empirical insights based on one of the most detailed surveys of SME performance in the continent to date. The findings have important and tangible implications for literature, as well as for industrial policy.

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Section: Intermediaries and Linkagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What constitutes successful African enterprises? A survey of performance variations in 210 African food processors

Hansen

Ishengoma

Upadhyaya

2018

IJOEM

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“…In Kenya, studies in tourism have concentrated on its development (Ondicho, 2000;, its contribution to employment and foreign exchange (Summary, 1983;Bachmann, 1988;Jommo, 1987;Joosten and Marwijk, 2003;Sindiga, 1999). Few studies have looked at the linkages of tourism with other sectors of the economy (Alila and McCormick, 1997;McCormick and Atieno, 1998;Mshenga, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunities for Micro and Small Scale Businesses in the Tourism Sector: The Case of The Kenya Coast1

Mshenga

Owuor²

2010

KCAJBM

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Tourism has been considered as an economic boon in Kenya as it is the largest contributor to the country's foreign exchange earnings. In the past, Kenya has concentrated on developing large scale tourism but this has led to high foreign exchange leakages as well as minimum benefits to the locals. In order to benefit the local economy, focus is now shifting to developing linkages between tourism and the local economies. This paper analyzed the proportion of hotel products purchased from MSEs and the opportunities available to micro and small businesses (MSEs) in the hotel industry in Kenya. Data from a survey of 49 hotels was used to determine the opportunities for MSEs in the hotel sector in Kenya. From the analysis, MSEs were found to have most potential in hotel food supply, child care services, room cleaning services, garbage collection, handicrafts and souvenir as well as maintenance and repair services. The results have implications for the role of tourism in small business growth and improving rural livelihoods and poverty alleviation.

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“…At the same time, formal and informal collaborations are a central aspect of firms' innovation strategies (Srholec and Verspagen, 2008). In the context of developing and transition countries, it is argued that firms rely on collaborations as an essential tool for overcoming the numerous barriers they face (McCormick and Atieno, 2002), including underdeveloped, highly volatile and unreliable formal institutions as well as small, fragmented and imperfect markets. Another distinguishing Alexandra Tsvetkova, Jana Schmutzler, Marcela Suarez and Alessandra Faggian -9781785369650…”

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confidence: 99%

Introduction. A context-specific two-way approach to the study of innovation systems in developing and transition countries

Schmutzler¹,

Suárez²,

Tsvetkova³

et al. 2017

Innovation in Developing and Transition Countries

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Linkages Between Small and Large Firms in the Kenyan Food Processing Sector

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

What constitutes successful African enterprises? A survey of performance variations in 210 African food processors

What constitutes successful African enterprises? A survey of performance variations in 210 African food processors

Opportunities for Micro and Small Scale Businesses in the Tourism Sector: The Case of The Kenya Coast1

Introduction. A context-specific two-way approach to the study of innovation systems in developing and transition countries

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