Market Orientation and Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Machakos County, Kenya
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Date
2025-10-09
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Publisher
International Journal on Science and Technology (IJSAT)
Abstract
Enterprises realize revenue through marketing of the products and services to potential customers across the economy. Therefore, to orient a firm’s strategies to identify, capture, and turn those market leads into sales and profits requires proper market orientation capabilities. Sadly, not all Small and Medium Enterprises have the capacity to fully align themselves with market opportunities and surmount existing challenges to reap the benefits of such markets. Cognizing this gap, the study investigated the role of market orientation and its effect on growth of Small and Medium Manufacturers in Machakos County, Kenya. A total of 384 SME owners and managers participated in the study by responding to Likert scale questionnaire during the survey. Data was analyzed using multiple regression to test for the null hypothesis. The findings of the study showed that market orientation significantly influenced the growth of SMEs Manufacturing in Machakos County, Kenya, with a p=0.0001. Coefficient of regression showed a positive direction meaning that market orientation influenced growth of SMEs with up to 46% of the change (ꞵ=0.461). Drawing from these results, the study concluded that small and medium enterprises' market orientation, intrinsic resources such as the identification of both current and future markets, aligning strategies towards capturing those markets, and developing products and services required are critical elements that must be possessed by entrepreneurs. It was therefore recommended that owners and managers of these firms must deliberately train and build their skills towards participating in newer markets and innovatively developing newer products and services embedded in technological capabilities to increase their revenue, a critical recipe for growth. Future studies should assess the internal capabilities required by SMEs Manufacturers in participating in regional markets to further boost growth and the larger realization of economic benefits for countries.
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Keywords
Market, Orientation, Growth, Enterprises, Marketing, Exchange, Products, Services
Citation
Mutinda, F., Kyongo, J., & Omagwa, J. (2025). Market orientation: A catalyst for growth of small and medium enterprises. International Journal of Scientific and Applied Technology, 16(4). https://doi.org/10.71097/IJSAT.v16.i4.8397