The Role of Technology as a Key Driver to Smes Competitiveness – A Case of Smes in Nairobi County

Author(s)

DR. JOHNESTER ALI MWANGULU ,

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Volume 6 - November 2017 (11)

Abstract

For decades now, Information Technology has helped deliver or facilitate several business benefits, including improved decision-making, flexibility, and productivity; internal operations efficiency; enhanced information management; lower cost business transactions; improved supply chain management and greater interconnections with business partners. However, it is the rapid pace and evolution of technological advances witnessed in more recent years that have helped “level the playing field” for SMEs. Such advances have resulted in unprecedented business opportunities. These advances in IT have resulted in the development of business models that are fundamentally different – traditional brick-and-mortar industries are being dominated, or completely replaced, by models that are essentially software-based, and physical boundaries are disappearing with more and more business data being transmitted and shared over the Internet. SME importance in a knowledge-based economy has been highly appreciated and acknowledged. Moreover, in the present economy, Micro and Small Enterprises are facing tremendous challenges and threats to survive in a competitive environment Information, and Communications Technology in the recent past has brought both challenges and opportunities to Small and Medium Sized organizations. The study seeks to analyze the role of Technology as a key driver for SMEs growth in Kenya. The researcher will use cross-sectional survey. The target population is 200 Small and Medium Enterprises in Nairobi County with a specific focus on SMEs in the central business district. Descriptive statistics will be used, and data were collected using both closed and open-ended questionnaires. The findings of this established that Technology plays a key role in creating competitiveness in SMEs which have strongly embraced and recommends that the Kenya Government should encourage the use of Technology in all their operations. This study identified Technology as a critical driver of the Vision 2030, a sustainable goal of economic transformation

Keywords

Technology, Small and Medium Enterprises, Nairobi County and Information Communications Technology 

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