Board independence, CEO tenure, and private firm performance in Nairobi, Kenya

Governing board members includes a mix of non-executive and executive members who seek the best interests of shareholders. Non-executive board members relay on independence to execute their responsibilities and enables better firms’ performance. The independent board members are vetted in by shareholders to reduce agency problems. The study aims to establish how Chief executive officer tenure influence independent board members on decision making to enhance firm performance. Agency theory and stewardship theory were utilized in the study. The explanatory research design was used 371 private firms were the sample size. Data was collected using structured questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple regression models were used to test for direct effect and moderation effect. According to the findings, board member independence is critical for monitoring the CEO and reducing principal-agent conflict, hence enhancing business performance. The independence of board members is critical for organizations to remain inventive and competitive in order to improve firm performance

Effects of Relationship Marketing on Customer Loyalty: Evidence from Petrol Service Stations in Uasin-Gishu County Kenya

In order to maximize business profit and general performance of the business, it is critical to keep a customer with “ultimate loyalty”. For this reason, any organization must strive to keep loyal customers as long as possible. This is the reason behind the popularity of customer loyalty programs developed by marketing practitioners. Yet, despite efforts for attracting and retaining customers by many organizations, customer attrition exists for every organization. The main reason is that most organizations are still employing the traditional methods to attract and maintain customers with little emphasis if any on developing long lasting relationships with customers. The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of relationship marketing on customer loyalty in Uasin-Gishu County with a view of making recommendations towards effective utilization of relationship marketing strategies to retain and maintain customers.The study employed mainly explanatory survey design. Simple random and systematic sampling techniques were used to select a sample of 354 customers of petrol service stations within Uasin-Gishu County who participated in the survey. Factor analysis was used to validate the preconceived variables while correlation analysis and Multiple Regression were be utilized to test the hypotheses of this study. The findings of this study supported the hypotheses of the study using both correlation and regression analysis. For instance, the R of the independent variables (level of commitment, level of communication, level of trust, conflict handling capacity) on the dependent variable (level of customer loyalty) is 0.72; this showed that the level of customer loyalty was positively and highly affected by thelevel of trust, level of commitment, level of communication effectiveness and conflict handling capacity of the service providers. Consequently, the determinant of regression (R2) is 0.519; it shows that 51.9% of the variation in level of customer loyalty was explained by the four independent variables. The regression model achieved a satisfactory level of goodness of fit in predicting the variance of level of customer loyalty in relation to the four predictor variables mentioned above. These findings hold implications that firms wishing to retain and develop loyal customers should be trustworthy and committed to the service ethic, should communicate timely and accurately, and must resolve conflicts in a manner that will eliminate unnecessary loss and inconvenience to customers. Keywords: Customer Loyalty, Relationship Marketing, Trust, Commitment, Communication, Conflict Handling Capacit

Does CEO Traits Influence Innovation? Evidence from the Kenya Banking Sector

Empirical research on firm innovation has provoked mixed reactions from various scholars in the recent past. The main purpose of this study is to determine the influence of CEO traits on innovation among financial institutions in Kenya on the basis of upper echelons and optimism theories. The study used the design of the explanatory survey. The survey data for 130 stratified financial firms were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The findings indicate that the CEO's optimism, humility, and narcissism all had a positive effect on firm innovation. The consequences are that innovation in financial institutions is increasing when CEOs are optimistic, humble and narcissistic. The results suggest that, in order for financial institutions to be innovative, they need to have the CEOs who are optimistic and who epitomize visionary objectives to be committed to innovation. Likewise, they should have CEOs who are humble enough to involve key stakeholders and a narcissistic CEO who can stand decisively for organizational change in the form of innovation. This study is important in understanding how the CEO's personality contributes to firm innovation

Board Leadership, Chief Executive Officer Optimism and Firm Innovation

Purpose - Following the resource dependence and optimism theory, the study explored whether Chief Executive Officer (CEO) optimism moderates the link between board leadership and firm innovation in the financial sector. Design/Methodology - 130 financial institutions in Kenya were surveyed using cross-sectional and explanatory designs. Hypothesis testing utilized both moderated hierarchical regression models and mod-graphs. Findings - The results revealed that the board member’s openness and independence positively influence firm innovation. The moderated hierarchical regression results and figures in the mod-graphs reveal that CEO optimism enhances the association between the board member’s openness, independence, and firm innovation. Practical Implications - The results suggested that for financial institutions to be innovative, board members should be open to each other in terms of the private ideas as well as being independent about decisions made to spur the growth of the firms. Additionally, such boards should appoint CEOs who are optimistic about being innovative