Capacity Utilization: The Forgotten Secret in Trading Out Poverty

Policy makers, academics and practitioners see economic growth as the secret behind the high standards of living worldwide. The ingredients that go into economic growth are still being debated, the only reason few countries have sustained long term economic growth despite all the promises politicians and policy makers make during political campaign periods or in times of economic crisis. One of the forgotten ingredients into economic growth is capacity utilization, there is overwhelming evidence that nations and regions could do more with what they already have if they focused more on capacity utilization. Even advanced countries like USA have never had a 100 percent capacity utilization, which operations managers might argue is not always desirable. It is hypothesized that focusing on capacity utilization might be a better exit strategy outof poverty than attracting expensive investments and expanding plants. This paper attempts to unlock the potential of capacity utilization in economic growth and by extension poverty eradication. The paper while focusing on the USA will draw useful lessons for East Africa in general. Data is drawn from US economic and business official reports. To cater for economic crisis, the data is drawn to cover past crises such as theoil crisis, the Asian crisis and any other event that might have adversely affected the world or regional economies. Linear regression is used in the analysis to investigate the drivers of capacity utilization and by extension economic growth. Private investment and productivity explains growth in capacity utilization in USA. Key words: Capacity, Poverty, Utilization, Economic growth, Tradin

Credit Information Sharing and Credit Availability in Kenya

This study provides an empirical investigation of the effect of credit information sharing on credit availability in Kenya while controlling for bank characteristics. The study employed the explanatory non-experimental research design. A census of the 43 financial institutions that are licensed under the Kenyan Banking Act was conducted. Both primary and secondary data were collected. The key source documents for the secondary data were the financial disclosures prepared by the banks on a quarterly basis for the period 2008-2012. Fixed effects regression results showed that presence of information sharing had significant positive effect on credit availability as measured by the volume of lending. However, the intensity of information sharing had very little effect on credit availability. The study recommends that the government should ensure that the recently introduced credit reference bureaus cater for all types of credit institutions and also organized informal groups so that prospects of enhanced credit availability can be further improved. Secondly, the government needs to embark on effective awareness creation of the benefits of credit information sharing to the financial institutions. Keywords: Asymmetric Information, Credit Availability, Information sharin

Knowledge Sharing, Organizational Learning and Performance of Top 100 Medium Enterprises in Kenya

This study was grounded on the view that organizations have hidden reservoirs of knowledge in terms of tacit and explicit knowledge, which can be tapped to improve performance. This is according to the postulations of the knowledge and resource based theories. Whereas there is evidence of the direct influence of knowledge sharing and performance, this study advanced a proposition that organizational learning has effect on such influence. Using a structured questionnaire, data on the variables were obtained from a cross-section of 65 medium-sized companies to empirically test the proposition. The companies were among 100 medium sized companies categorized as top performing medium-sized companies in Kenya by KPMG and Nation Media Group in the year 2013. The study established that knowledge sharing had a positive and statistically significant effect on organizational performance. Conversely andcontrary to expectation, the study established that organizational learning had neither direct nor mediating effect on organizational performance. In spite of this finding, the study supports the anchoring theories that performance differences across firms can be attributed to thevariance in firms’ resources and capabilities. Policy makers can utilize the findings of this study to formulate sound support strategies for medium enterprises. Further, areas of inquiry have been put forth based on the limitations inherent in the study.Key Words: Knowledge Sharing, Organizational Learning, Firm Performance, Medium- Sized Enterprise

Transcriptional dynamics during cell wall removal and regeneration reveals key genes involved in cell wall development in rice

Efficient and cost-effective conversion of plant biomass to usable forms of energy requires a thorough understanding of cell wall biosynthesis, modification and degradation. To elucidate these processes, we assessed the expression dynamics during enzymatic removal and regeneration of rice cell walls in suspension cells over time. In total, 928 genes exhibited significant up-regulation during cell wall removal, whereas, 79 genes were up-regulated during cell wall regeneration. Both gene sets are enriched for kinases, transcription factors and genes predicted to be involved in cell wall-related functions. Integration of the gene expression datasets with a catalog of known and/or predicted biochemical pathways from rice, revealed metabolic and hormonal pathways involved in cell wall degradation and regeneration. Rice lines carrying Tos17 mutations in genes up-regulated during cell wall removal exhibit dwarf phenotypes. Many of the genes up-regulated during cell wall development are also up-regulated in response to infection and environmental perturbations indicating a coordinated response to diverse types of stress

Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction At Kenyan Airports

The overall goal of this paper is to contribute to the research on customer satisfaction at airports. Existing studies have focussed on airport service experience in America, Europe and Asia. Specifically it contributes to the development of the knowledge of service quality expectations at a major airport hub in Africa. The exploratory study integrated elements of the 22 item SERVQUAL scale developed by Parasuraman et al., (1988). A quantitative research was conducted and responses from 280 departing international travellers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was used to test five hypotheses. An independent samples t-test was utilised to assess whether the means of two groups are statistically significant from one another. The variables to be tested were service performance against the respective service expectation. The findings indicate atmosphere related aspects of the airport experience showed a significant influence on the respondents’ customer satisfaction. The feeling of being safe in the airport, ease of way finding, facilities for people with reduced mobility and the availability of leisure rooms were the most significant elements in the traveller’s positive experience while at the airport. The study was not without limitations. In utilising the gap analysis model, this study focused on understanding what the customers want. Other elements of the gap analysis model require further illumination. The findings of this study will help contribute to the development of a conceptual model for a much more exhaustive study on airport passenger satisfaction at other Kenyan airports and internationally

Air travelers’ satisfaction with security screening

The aim of the descriptive study is to gain an understanding of the perceived level of fairness in their experience of security screening relation to their satisfaction. The context of the study was a major aviation hub in East Africa. The target population was all departing international passengers. Primary data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The respondents were selected using convenience sampling of passengers who had just completed the final security check at the departure area of the airport. A total of 251 usable responses were collected from a target of 384 respondents giving a response rate of 65 percent. The findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the relationship between the perceptions of fairness of security procedures and their influence on satisfaction. One way between groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test for statistical significance. A Cronbach’s alpha of 88.7 was computed demonstrating a high level of internal consistency of the survey instrument. The adequacy of security procedures, level of communication provided before and during the screening process, consistency and fairness were found to have a significant relationship to the level of satisfaction reported by passengers. The findings suggest that there are significant differences between groups’ perception of different elements security procedures. The implications of the study are twofold. The study was cross sectional and indeed was impacted by significant changes in security procedures at the airport at the time of the study. A longitudinal survey may further mitigate the impact of the variances of responses and support a robust contribution to the development of a theoretical model of airport passenger satisfaction. Airport managers could use the results of this study as inputs to enhance the design of screening procedures in modern hubs to enhance the passenger experience to drive revenue growth