Innovation Strategies Influence on Organizational Performance

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the influences of innovation strategies on organizational performance, a case study of Telkom Kenya Limited. The specific objectives were to evaluate the process innovations, product innovations, marketing innovations and organizational innovations strategies influence on firm performance. A descriptive case study design was used to establish the influence of the independent variables (innovation strategies) on the dependent variable (performance) of Telkom Kenya Ltd. This study was based on four theories which are open innovation theory, Schumpeter creative destruction theory, disruptive innovation theory and the resource based view theory. Data for this study was collected using semi structured questionnaires. The study was a census of all the 40 employees of Telkom Kenya Ltd headquarters. The researcher used Statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) for data analysis. To ensure validity of this research the researcher pre-tested the questionnaires for this study with a few members of staff while reliability was ensured by subjecting the questionnaires to experts in strategy and innovation. This study used descriptive research design to describe the variables with most of the responses being quantitative data which was analyzed through Statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) and qualitative data was analyzed and classified into themes. These findings were presented in tables and figures for clarity. The study established that product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation and administrative innovation strategies have a positive effect on organizational performance as indicated by the respondents. The study recommends the management to consider implementing innovation activities like reduction of costs, offer on new products, rebranding, use of promotion activities and product improvement as they influence performance to a great extent. The management needs to focus on administrative innovations in order to fully equip employees with skills thus giving them ability to grow. Some of the administrative innovations this study recommends for implementation areinnovations hub development, feedback platforms, automation of processes and culture change initiatives.The findings of the study have shown that process innovation has the highest positive influence on organizational performance. Process innovations assist companies to improve on quality of their products and services through better use of technologies, equipment’s. Operational efficiency, effectiveness brand image improvement, sales growth and market rank performance are all as a result of process innovation as they enable the organization of firm to launch more enhanced products and services at a low cost which met the needs of the customer.This study recommends that management of organizations need to seriously consider the investigated innovation strategies and implement them in their organizations if they are pursuing an improvement in the levels of their organizational performance.