Influence of Market Focus Strategy on Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Nandi County, Kenya

A focus strategy targets a specific market segment, using elements of market focus. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) often dominate local markets before scaling. Small and Medium Enterprises are plays significant role in development of the economy. In Kenya, they account for about 98% of all the businesses and support a large share of employment as well as income generation. However, many SMEs struggle to grow. A substantial proportion of SMEs fail to achieve sustained growth and many cease operations within first few years of operation. The biggest challenge for these SMEs is stiff competition. They lack resources to compete effectively with firms across the wider markets. The study objective is to determine the influence of market focus strategy on growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Nandi County, Kenya. The hypothesis of the study is that here is no statistically significant influence of market focus strategy on growth of SMEs in Nandi County, Kenya. Market focus was determined as a significant predictor of growth among the SMEs (B = 0.304, β =0.263, t = 4.984, p <0.001). This is an indication that a unit increase in focus particularly on a well-defined customer segments lead to a 0.304-unit improvement in SME growth. The finding corresponds with the descriptive mean (M = 4.00) thereby reflecting that SMEs gain from specializing in specific niches where they can serve customers better and more efficiently. The p-value of 0.001 which is less than 0.05 meant the rejection of the null hypothesis. This shows that market focus strategy significantly affects SME growth. The study makes conclusion that market focus significantly enhance SME performance. SMEs that concentrate on specific market segments and tailor make their products to customer needs achieve higher sales and loyalty.

Market focus strategy, growth of SMEs

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