EFFECTS OF COLLECTIVE ACTION ON PERFORMANCE OF WOMEN-ONED MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES IN SELECTED COUNTIES IN KENYA

Abstract

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are imperative in boosting manufacturing in Kenya. Stakeholders including the government have advanced initiatives to promote MSMEs by providing affordable loans and developing policies to help them thrive. Despite these efforts, there is sluggishness in the way manufacturing enterprises owned by women perform. Collective action could be employed to reverse this situation considering that most women are good at networking. This study’s objective is to determine the effect of collective action on the performance of women-owned manufacturing enterprises. The study uses the primary data collected by interviewing 55 women who owned enterprises. The women were selected through a simple random sampling technique and a structured questionnaire administered. This data was complemented by published data from government policy documents. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analyses were done to establish the degree to which collective action influenced how women-owned manufacturing enterprises performed in Kenya. Spearman’s Rank correlation analysis established that collective action was strongly and positively correlated with the performance of women-owned manufacturing enterprises. This was further investigated through regression analysis and it was found that collective action positively affected those enterprises' performance. The study recommends that women who own enterprises in the manufacturing sector should embrace networking through belonging to a group(s) or business organization(s) in order to improve the performance of their enterprises.JEL: L25; J16; D70  Article visualizations: