STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PRACTICES, LEARNING ORIENTATION AND PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN KENYA

This research paper examines strategic management practices, performance and learning orientation of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya. The main research questions of the study were to evaluate how strategic management practices influence SME performance, whether learning orientation is a mediating factor and what challenges SMEs in Kenya. The study was headed by three key theories namely, the Resource-Based View (RBV), Contingency Theory and the Organizational Learning Theory. The most relevant form of a literature review was a qualitative narrative review that needed to be conducted to integrate the findings of the studies conducted on the subject matter over the last ten years and reported in peer-reviewed journals, academic dissertations, and sector reports and company reports published since 2014 and 2025. The thematic analysis approach was used to identify the patterns and gaps between the literature and the strategic management practices, learning orientation and the performance of SMEs. The authors found that SME activities can enhance their operation to an agreeable level through enhanced decision making, resource allocation and positioning in the market by adopting strategic management practices. The learning orientation was discovered to be a significant mediator which helps SMEs to improve the effectiveness of their strategic management practice leading to innovation and adaptability to changes in the market environment. In Kenya, SMEs are however known to be suffering due to several challenges which include inaccessibility of financial resources, incompetence of managerial skills and external factors like political instability. These barriers block the capacity of SMEs to adopt effective strategic management and to maximize on learning orientation. Finally, the paper also notes importance with regards to strategic management practices and learning orientation as far as improvement of performance of SMEs in Kenya is concerned. It means that strategic management practices with an industry focus, role of government policies in the development of SMEs, and effects of learning orientation on the success of the business in long-run should be studied. The research also identifies the necessity of intervention programs to address the problems that the SMEs are currently endearing especially regarding access to finances and skill development of managers in order to have a sustainable competitive SME sector in Kenya.