PhD in Business and Management Theses and Dissertations (2023)

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    Consumer attitudes, social networks and technology usage: evidence from mobile banking users in Kenya
    (Strathmore University, 2023) Kiburu, L.
    The propensity of consumers to use technology to access services in recent times was heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic. This happened when human society was forced to enhance virtual consumer engagement (e.g. cashless banking) to prevent contamination and the spread of the virus. Extant literature examined how consumer attitudes towards technology was related to technology usage, but there was a lack of adequate knowledge on the contingency roles of social network ties. This study relied on social exchange theory (SET) and tie strengths theory to suggest that the extent to which perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) of technology were related to technology usage was dependent upon different levels of strong and weak social network ties. This argument was tested on primary data from 452 mobile banking users in Kenya and moderated regression analysis to test the conceptual model. Findings from the study showed that while strong and weak social network ties were associated with consumer technology usage, their boundary conditioning roles were demonstrated in the extent to which they strengthened the relationship between perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of technology and technology usage. The findings from the study extend existing consumer technology usage literature in several ways. First, the study advances the existing literature by showing that consumer interactions within social networks explain when consumer attitude towards technology is associated with technology usage. Second, the study broadens scholarly perspectives on consumer technology usage by using primary data from Kenya: an under researched context that brings new insights to understand the roles of social network ties in explaining consumer technology usage. Third, the study findings provide value for industry practitioners, policy makers and regulators in their efforts to accelerate the use of technology to access essential services. Limitations of the study included study of a technology in a single industry and single country context. Future research directions proposed include study of multiple technologies in multiple industries, comparative study of multiple country contexts as well as a longitudinal study to examine the effect of time on both the consumer attitudes, social networks and technology usage. Keywords: Consumer interactions; mobile banking; social networks; consumer attitude; technology usage; Technology Acceptance Model; social exchange theory; tie strength theory
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    Entrepreneurial mode of entry of the next generation: an inter-generational perspective
    (Strathmore University, 2023) Muigai, S. W.
    Family business scholars and practitioners share a strong interest in understanding the entrepreneurial behaviour of next-generation family members. This stems from a broad recognition that family organizations are fertile grounds for nurturing entrepreneurial mindsets, but entrepreneurial entry into the family business is a challenge, making intergenerational succession one of the main challenges facing family businesses today. Against this backdrop, this study sought to examine the effect of a combination of family embeddedness factors (family business exposure, perceived parental entrepreneurial status, family business involvement, grandparents’ entrepreneurial status) with push and pull factors and formal employment outside of the family business (FB) in determining the entrepreneurial mode of entry (EME) choice of the next-generation family members in Kenya. These factors were conceptualised as follows: First, the influence of two explanatory variables on the choice of EME of the next-generation family members was examined - that is – first, the influence of parental business exposure(PBE) on the choice of EME and secondly, the opening of the black box of this parental business exposure to examine the influence of perceived parental entrepreneurial rewards on the choice of EME by the next-generation family members. The entrepreneurial mode of entry variable was conceptualized as entry through three choices; joining the family business (inheritance route), joining the family business through corporate venturing (CV) and independent own founding. These three EME choices by the next-generation family members were informed by the fact that exposure to a small family business in a developing country may yield a unique entrepreneurial entry route by the next-generation family members. This is because these small family businesses may not be able to engage all the next-generation family members. Furthermore, they may not have an objective of establishing entrepreneurial legacies across generations. There is, therefore, a need to understand the unique supply of entrepreneurs from these small family businesses in order to discriminate policies and practices that best suit them. Results from multinomial logit regressions of 440 next-generation family members revealed that parental business exposure and perceived parental entrepreneurial rewards were related to the likelihood of joining the family business either through an inheritance or a CV route (as opposed to own founding route). Other family embeddedness factors examined were exposure to enterprising grandparents and family business involvement, and the results indicated that they reinforced the likelihood of entry through these two routes. A necessity motivation drive and a longer period of formal employment outside of the family business, however, reduced the likelihood of joining the FB or CV of the next- generation family members as opposed to own founding. The results from this study contribute to the debate on intergenerational influence in entrepreneurial behaviour by offering a fine-grained understanding of the entrepreneurial entry of the next-generation family members who may be exposed to smaller family businesses. The study also contributes to social learning theory and social cognitive learning theory by providing evidence of the effects of learning experiences of individuals’ exposure to a family business on entrepreneurial entry. The study also offers suggestions to family business organisations seeking intergenerational succession on deliberate efforts they can make to nurture the entrepreneurial behaviour of the next-generation family members.