Factors Influencing Growth Of Micro-Enterprises Manufacturing Metallic Products At Kamukunji In Nairobi, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The study examines factors influencing growth of micro-enterprises manufacturing metallic products at Kamukunji in Nairobi. Literature review indicates that concepts, theories, and factors influencing growth featured in this study are largely developed from studies in Western countries, particularly United States and Europe, but their applicability to micro-enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa is contestable. The existing research gap shows that there has been no study on factors influencing micro-enterprise growth at Kamukunji. The design of the study happens to be a correlational survey built on a conceptual model of factors influencing growth. Data were collected from 354 micro-enterprises by self-administered questionnaire, interview, observation guide, and field notes. Non-parametric analysis of variance tests the relationship between entrepreneur and enterprise profiles and growth. Ethnicity, religion, marital status, father occupation, enterprise‟s age, priority growth goal, and sources of funds portray significance at 0.05 levels. Factor analyses point to sampling adequacy for personality attributes (KMO = .82), transferable experiences (KMO = .74), and stakeholder patronage (KMO = .87). Bartlett‟s Test of Sphericity reveals significance at .001 levels which emphasise principal component analysis‟ relevancy for the data set. Cumulative variance explained (R2) findings indicate that the personality attributes (60.85%), transferable experiences (61.26%), and stakeholder patronage (65.33%) models remain conceptually valid. The 39 hypotheses tested by Spearman rank correlation coefficients discloses partial acceptance (66.67%). Key conclusions denote that stakeholder patronage has moderate support while personality attributes and transferable experiences experience low support from the quantitative and qualitative data. Key recommendations turns out to be the development of personality attributes during entrepreneurs‟ formative years; enhancement of transferable experiences through skills training of entrepreneurs; and participatory stakeholder patronage to enable micro-enterprises grow beyond the survival stage. Further research should involve designing a study to determine whether growth factors at Kamukunji have improved since the survey was carried out way back in 2006. Results significantly influence policy, practice, research, and development partners‟ initiatives on the stride towards achievement of long term goals such as UN Millennium Development Goals 2015 and Kenya Vision 2030.