TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE: A CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT DIMENSION IN MAINTAINING CUSTOMER LOYALTY

With intense competition among hotels, the study sought to assess the influence of technology infrastructure on customer loyalty as a strategy in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the hotel industry in Kenya. The study used the non-experimental cross-sectional survey design. A total of 147 hotels listed in the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers (KAHC) guide 2014 were studied. A census sampling technique was used. The respondents comprised of 147 customer relationship managers or equivalent. Semi structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that the hotel industry had effective technology infrastructure and that technology facilities were a key determinant of customer loyalty. The study concluded that technology infrastructure in the hotel sub sector in Kenya were key determinants to customer loyalty. The study recommends that the hotel management ensures that the hotels are International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, United Kingdom Licensed under Creative Common Page 89 upgraded with the technological changes taking place in the whole world; the management conducts a market survey of the technological facilities in use in other hotels so as to minimize high competition from the competition

Role of Customer Orientation on Customer Loyalty in the Hotel Industry in Kenya

The purpose of the study was to establish the role of customer orientation on customer loyalty in the hotel industry in Kenya. The study used the non-experimental cross-sectional survey design. A total of 147 hotels listed in the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers (KAHC) guide 2014 were studied. A census sampling technique was used. The respondents comprised of 147 customer relationship managers or equivalent. Semi structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to analyze the data. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to analyse the data. Quantitative techniques were used to analyze the data. The study findings showed that customer orientation has contributed to customer loyalty in the hotel industry in Kenya. The study concludes that employees were easily accessible, empowered to take initiative and their knowledge of hotel procedures was recommendable. Stakeholders in the hospitality industry should be aware that a loyal customer does not only engage in repeat patronage but also provides positive word-of-mouth to other people, thereby increasing the revenue of the hotel. The implication of this,therefore, is that a customer’s change of patronage would have an impact in the long-term revenue of the hotel. Delivering quality service to customers is a must for success and survival in today’s competitive hospitality industry

Improving early childhood development in the context of the nurturing care framework in Kenya: A policy review and qualitative exploration of emerging issues with policy makers

Introduction: The Nurturing Care Framework (NCF) describes “nurturing care” as the ability of nations and communities to support caregivers and provide an environment that ensures children's good health and nutrition, protects them from threats, and provides opportunities for early learning through responsive and emotionally supportive interaction. We assessed the extent to which Kenyan government policies address the components of the NCF and explored policy/decision makers' views on policy gaps and emerging issues.Methods: A search strategy was formulated to identify policy documents focusing on early childhood development (ECD), health and nutrition, responsive caregiving, opportunities for early learning and security and safety, which are key components of the NCF. We limited the search to policy documents published since 2010 when the Kenya constitution was promulgated and ECD functions devolved to county governments. Policy/decision-maker interviews were also conducted to clarify emerging gaps from policy data. Data was extracted, coded and analyzed based on the components of the NCF. Framework analysis was used for interview data with NCF being the main framework of analysis. The Jaccard's similarity coefficient was used to assess similarities between the themes being compared to further understand the challenges, successes and future plans of policy and implementation under each of the NCF domains.Results: 127 policy documents were retrieved from government e-repository and county websites. Of these, n = 91 were assessed against the inclusion criteria, and n = 66 were included in final analysis. The 66 documents included 47 County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) and 19 national policy documents. Twenty policy/decision-maker interviews were conducted. Analysis of both policy and interview data reveal that, while areas of health and nutrition have been considered in policies and county level plans (coefficients >0.5), the domains of early learning, responsive caregiving and safety and security face significant policy and implementation gaps (coefficients ≤ 0.5), particularly for the 0–3 year age group. Inconsistencies were noted between county level implementation plans and national policies in areas such as support for children with disabilities and allocation of budget to early learning and nutrition domains.Conclusion: Findings indicate a strong focus on nutrition and health with limited coverage of responsive caregiving and opportunities for early learning domains. Therefore, if nurturing care goals are to be achieved in Kenya, policies are needed to support current gaps identified with urgent need for policies of minimum standards that provide support for improvements across all Nurturing Care Framework domains

Nutrient enrichment of pineapple waste using Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma viride by solid state fermentation

The enrichment by microbial fermentation of agro industrial waste to alleviate their nutritional problems has been proposed but the nutritional value of the subsequent feed for animal consumption has not been fully elucidated. This study investigates whether solid state fermentation of pineapple waste using the fungi Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma viride could improve its nutrient content. Results show that fermentation of pineapple waste by solid state fermentation using the fungi A. niger and T. viride significantly (P < 0.05) enriches the nutrient content of the waste, particularly increasing the crude protein and ash content while lowering the crude fiber content. The most significant nutrient enrichment was recorded at 72 h of fermentation using A. niger and at 96 h of fermentation using T. viride. Indiscernible changes were noted in the mineral content of pineapple waste (PW). Dry matter increased significantly (P < 0.05) as fermentation progressed with the highest values recorded at 96 h. This study establishes no significant differences (P > 0.05) in the fermentation abilities of the two fungi, A. niger and T. viride. Fermented pineapple waste may be a potential supplement in compounding animal feed provided that it is acceptable and highly digestible.Keywords: Agro industrial waste, crude fiber, crude protein

Data Mining Model for Predicting Student Enrolment in STEM Courses in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract: Educational data mining is the process of applying data mining tools and techniques to analyze data at educational institutions. In this paper, educational data mining was used to predict enrollment of students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses in higher educational institutions. The study examined the extent to which individual, sociodemographic and school-level contextual factors help in pre-identifying successful and unsuccessful students in enrollment in STEM disciplines in Higher Education Institutions in Kenya. The Cross Industry Standard Process for Data Mining framework was applied to a dataset drawn from the first, second and third year undergraduate female students enrolled in STEM disciplines in one University in Kenya to model student enrollment. Feature selection was used to rank the predictor variables by their importance for further analysis. Various predictive algorithms were evaluated in predicting enrollment of students in STEM courses. Empirical results showed the following: (i) the most important factors separating successful from unsuccessful students are: High School final grade, teacher inspiration, career flexibility, pre-university awareness and mathematics grade. (ii) among classification algorithms for prediction, decision tree (CART) was the most successful classifier with an overall percentage of correct classification of 85.2%. This paper showcases the importance of Prediction and Classification based data mining algorithms in the field of education and also presents some promising future lines

Entrepreneurial opportunity discovery dimensions and growth of non-governmental organizations in Kenya

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) play a critical role in addressing social ills like poverty, employment, and food insecurity; therefore, their growth prospects enhance their ability to address these social ills. Discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities amongst the agro-based NGOs has not got the desired attention, and it is the least researched area in social entrepreneurship. This study investigated the relationship between Entrepreneurial Opportunity Discovery Dimensions and Growth of Non-Governmental Organizations in Kenya. It employed correlation design and was anchored on the Kirznerian Entrepreneurship Theory. The target population was 135 agro-based NGOs in Kenya. A mixed-method approach was used, combined qualitative and quantitative techniques. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS graphic-25) aided in the analysis. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using AMOS and Simple linear regression analysis were the primary analysis techniques used to evaluate the relationship between entrepreneurial opportunity discovery dimensions and the growth of NGOs. The results indicated that alertness0.372, p=0.033)and prior knowledge (0.163, p=0.031) have a significant favorable influence on growth, while social networks 0.047, p=0.713) showed an insignificant effect on the growth of NGOs. Investing in acquiring alert individuals and helping them gain relevant knowledge in the 21sttechnologies and emerging issues can lead to increased NGO ability to continue serving the community effectively and be engines of development for the general good of Kenya

Views of Secondary School Students on Adolescent Friendly Health Services in Level Two Facilities in Mombasa County, Kenya

Background: Sexual and reproductive health problems remain a major cause of ill health and/death among adolescents. Despite the adoption of adolescent-friendly health services in all government facilities in Kenya, incidences of teenage pregnancies and HIV infections among adolescents aged 15-19 years continue to rise. Understanding adolescents’ views on the health services offered at facilities is important to develop services that are responsive to their needs. Methods: The study was conducted to assess the views of secondary school students on adolescent-friendly health services in level 2 facilities in Kisauni Sub-County, Mombasa County, Kenya. The study looked at staff characteristics, facility characteristics, interpersonal relationships and their relationship on students’ perceptions on friendliness of services. A survey was conducted with 313 secondary school going students from two public schools in Kisauni Sub-County, Mombasa County Kenya. Students were selected using a simple random selection process and structured questionnaires used to collect data. Additionally, researchers assessed four public primary care facilities using an observational checklist. Key informant interviews conducted on the facility in charges. Relationships between variables were assessed using Chi-Square at a 95% confidence interval. Results: Of all the respondents (n=313), 42% reported the services to be friendly. More than half (65.5%, n=205), of all the respondents thought the facilities had appropriate staff to provide adolescent and youth-friendly health services (AYFHS) as well as majority (98%) of all the respondents reporting preference of staff of the same sex and age to offer services to them since they could understand them easily. Media (radio, newspapers) and static advertisements significantly influenced AYFHS (p - values 0.017 and 0.004 respectively). Less than half of those who reported friendly services mentioned being aware of services offered in other settings such as drop-in centres (43.2%, n=32), community outreach (43.7%, n=44) and school health programs (39.2%, n=65). Accessing facility by use of vehicle and walking on foot had a significant influence on AYFHS (p- values of 0.001 and 0.003 respectively). Involvement of other agencies in service review had a significant influence on the friendliness of services (p-value 0.003). Conclusion: Adolescents perceive the Adolescent and Youth Friendly Services as unfriendly, with access to service as a barrier to accessing these services. Keywords: Adolescence, Adolescent Health Services, Reproductive Health Services, Health, Kenya, Friendly Service

Tuberculosis Treatment Adherence among Patients Taking Anti-TB Drugs in Kilifi County, Kenya

Introduction: TB treatment adherence is proven to be the single factor associated with TB treatment success. Poor treatment adherence increases the spread of new TB cases and the likelihood of developing MDRTB. Thus, this study aimed to determine factors influencing TB treatment adherence in Malindi Subcounty, Kilifi County Kenya.Materials and Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional study design. A Structured standardized questionnaire from the Morisky medication adherence scale and Focus group discussion were used to collect data. Purposive sampling was used to select 8-high burden facilities, we used descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression to analyse the data.Results: Two hundred and thirty-five (235) patients were sampled. TB treatment adherence level was 75% in Malindi sub-county. Living with family (OR =3.01; CI: 1.45-6.25, P=0.003), basic knowledge on TB (OR; 4.078, CI: 2.039-8.154, P=0.001), perceived severity (OR=2.186, CI: 1.088-4.393, P=0.028) and perceived susceptibility (OR=0.477, CI: 0.303-0.752, P=0.001), patient satisfaction (OR; 1.824, CI: 1.257-2.647), P=0.002) and enrolment of TB patients to support groups (OR; 0.353, CI: 0.438-1.538), P=0.031) were factors associated with TB treatment adherence.Conclusion and Recommendation: Factors like family support, basic knowledge of TB and patient support increase TB treatment adherence.We recommend community advocacy on TB, policies on integration of TB services and enrolment of TB patients to support groups to increase TB treatment adherence

Improving early childhood development in the context of the nurturing care framework in Kenya: A policy review and qualitative exploration of emerging issues with policy makers

Introduction: The Nurturing Care Framework (NCF) describes “nurturing care” as the ability of nations and communities to support caregivers and provide an environment that ensures children's good health and nutrition, protects them from threats, and provides opportunities for early learning through responsive and emotionally supportive interaction. We assessed the extent to which Kenyan government policies address the components of the NCF and explored policy/decision makers' views on policy gaps and emerging issues.  Methods: A search strategy was formulated to identify policy documents focusing on early childhood development (ECD), health and nutrition, responsive caregiving, opportunities for early learning and security and safety, which are key components of the NCF. We limited the search to policy documents published since 2010 when the Kenya constitution was promulgated and ECD functions devolved to county governments. Policy/decision-maker interviews were also conducted to clarify emerging gaps from policy data. Data was extracted, coded and analyzed based on the components of the NCF. Framework analysis was used for interview data with NCF being the main framework of analysis. The Jaccard's similarity coefficient was used to assess similarities between the themes being compared to further understand the challenges, successes and future plans of policy and implementation under each of the NCF domains.  Results: 127 policy documents were retrieved from government e-repository and county websites. Of these, n = 91 were assessed against the inclusion criteria, and n = 66 were included in final analysis. The 66 documents included 47 County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) and 19 national policy documents. Twenty policy/decision-maker interviews were conducted. Analysis of both policy and interview data reveal that, while areas of health and nutrition have been considered in policies and county level plans (coefficients >0.5), the domains of early learning, responsive caregiving and safety and security face significant policy and implementation gaps (coefficients ≤ 0.5), particularly for the 0–3 year age group. Inconsistencies were noted between county level implementation plans and national policies in areas such as support for children with disabilities and allocation of budget to early learning and nutrition domains.  Conclusion: Findings indicate a strong focus on nutrition and health with limited coverage of responsive caregiving and opportunities for early learning domains. Therefore, if nurturing care goals are to be achieved in Kenya, policies are needed to support current gaps identified with urgent need for policies of minimum standards that provide support for improvements across all Nurturing Care Framework domains.</p