The Role of Structural Decisions on the Manufacturing Performance of Sugar Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

Abstract

The overarching goal of sugar manufacturing firms is long term survival and the ability to wade off competition evident in the industry. This requires manufacturing firms to rapidly develop emanating from manufacturing technological advancements, frequent innovations, as well as rapid developments in their structural capacities. The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of structural decisions on performance. Specifically, the study sought to: explore the effect of capacity on the performance, assess the effect of process on the performance, examine the effect of structure on the performance, and to determine the effect of operations and development on the performance of sugar manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study was based on Routine Based Theory and adopted both descriptive and experimental research designs anchored on realism ontology, and used both quantitative and qualitative approach. The unit of analysis was sugar manufacturing plant. The respondents were sought through both purposive and simple random sampling strategies, yielding a sample of 165 respondents. Structured questionnaires and interview schedule were used to collect primary data. Data was processed both descriptively and inferentially using Microsoft Excel 2010 and SPSS version 21. EFA, correlation analysis and regression analysis, were equally used, while qualitative data analysis was done through expert judgment, scenario mapping and critical thinking. The overall study results revealed that structural decisions have insignificant effect on performance.