Effect of strategic resource utilization on performance of Coffee Cooperative Societies in the Upper Eastern Counties Of Kenya

Abstract

While some cooperative societies in Kenya have consistently performed well, others have been found to perennially underperform. The poor performance and great performance have been attributed to strategic resource utilization. Cooperative societies therefore, have the critical responsibility of understanding how strategic resource utilization influences performance so that they can work towards securing successful performance while also mitigating against poor performance. A great dilemma for management and investors alike is whether there exists an optimal strategic resource utilization policy and how strategic resource utilization influence performance. This study thus sought to investigate the effect of strategic resource utilization on performance of coffee cooperative societies in the Upper Eastern Counties of Kenya. To achieve the above objective, the study adopted the following specific objectives; To examine the effects of tangible resources utilization on performance coffee co-operative societies in Upper Eastern Counties of Kenya; To determine the effects of strategic staff competencies on performance of coffee co-operative societies in Upper Eastern Counties of Kenya; To evaluate the influence of strategic capabilities utilization on performance of coffee co-operative societies in Upper Eastern Counties of Kenya; to examine the relationship between strategic corporate governance and performance of coffee co-operative societies in the Upper Eastern Counties of Kenya. This study was guided by the Resource Based Theory (RBT) and Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT). This study adopted explanatory research design. The target population of the current study was the General Managers in each of the ninety-six coffee cooperative societies operating in Upper Eastern Counties of Kenya, one general manager for each society. As the population was small, the study adopted census survey. The current study relied on primary data that was collected by use of questionnaires administered to the respondents. The study used correlation and regression statistics and analyzed the data with the help of Statistical Package for Social Science. The dependent variable was correlated with independent variables to determine if a relationship existed between variables. Regression statistics was then used to determine the significance of the relationship between variables. Data was analyzed and presented using descriptive statistics and presented in terms of mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation (CV) and significance test. Findings indicated a statistical relationship between all the variables tested and performance. Specifically, result indicate a statistical effect of Strategic Tangible Resources Utilization (β= 0.209), Strategic Staff Competencies Utilization (β= 0.215), Strategic Capabilities Utilization (β= 0.227) and Strategic Corporate Governance, (β= 0.273) on performance respectively. Overall, there is a strong relationship (R=0.866) between strategic resource utilization and performance of coffee cooperative societies in Upper Eastern Counties of Kenya. The R-Square value of study was 0.750 which implies that strategic tangible resources utilization, strategic staff competencies utilization, strategic capabilities utilization and strategic corporate governance accounted for 75.0% of the total variance in performance of coffee co-operative societies in Upper Eastern Counties of Kenya. The study recommends that managers of cooperative societies should perform internal resource utilization analyses to determine their resource endowments and the appropriate manner in which they can be bundled and deployed to ensure maximum internal resource value.