Operational Capabilities, Sponsorship and Performance of Private Chartered Universities in Kenya

Abstract

The performance of any institution of higher learning is of great concern to various stakeholders since universities have been seen as drivers of economic development. However, in the recent past private universities have witnessed decline in performance due to rapid changes in the environment. This thus requires that universities need to rethink their operations and leverage on their operational capabilities to boost their performance. The major goal of this undertaking was to probe the influence of operational capabilities, sponsorship and private chartered universities’ performance in Kenya. Particularly, the study established the extent to which information technology use, managerial capabilities, knowledge management practices, operational processes and sponsorship influence performance of private chartered universities in Kenya. This study was supported by five theories namely: resource based view theory, dynamic capabilities postulation, knowledge based hypothesis, stewardship theory and the balanced score card. It used a mixed methods research approach, positivist philosophy and cross sectional survey design. The research’s population of interest was all the twenty-five private chartered universities in Kenya. Taro Yamane’s formulae was adopted to arrive at a sample size of 230 participants. Data was obtained by means of a questionnaire which was evaluated for both content and construct validity and an interview guide. In addition, to determine the questionnaire’s reliability, piloting was done at 95% confidence level. Appropriate diagnostic tests were performed prior the data analysis. Descriptive statistics were derived for the quantitative data while inferential statistics was conducted to derive the association between dependent and exogenous variables. Qualitative data analysis was facilitated via content analysis and the study thematic areas. The relationship linking the research variables was tested via logistic regression analysis. Pursuant to the research results, there was a strong, positive link between information technology use, managerial capabilities, knowledge management practices, operational processes, sponsorship and performance of private chartered universities in Kenya. These factors jointly account for 62.8% of the dissimilarity in the performance of private universities. The research findings depicted that despite universities adopting digital learning there was need to upgrade their information technology infrastructure and equipment. Additionally, majority of the universities had capable who inspired members of the university towards change but there was external interference in decision making hence deacons took long to be made. The findings also revealed that universities needed to audit their tacit and explicit knowledge to ensure that existing resources were deployed effectively. The study noted that universities needed to develop guidelines and standardization of processes within the universities. The study also noted that despite sponsors providing financial resources they interfered with the operations of the universities. The study recommended investing in state of the art information technology infrastructure and equipment, having clear policies to deter external parties from interfering with decision making in the university, strengthening policies in knowledge sharing and storage within the outside the universities, increasing training on research writing and increase funding to research and having a framework to allow universities operate independent from the sponsors. Further studies can be conducted in private universities that are not chartered and also public universities to ferret out the impression of the study factors. Additionally, research on withdrawal of government sponsorship to private universities and the new proposed universities funding model and how these would influence the performance of private chartered universities in Kenya.