Strategic Leadership, Organisational Transformation, and Performance of Agribusiness Companies Listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange In Kenya.
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Date
2025-12-09
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PAC University
Abstract
The agribusiness sector in Kenya contributes approximately 30% to the national GDP and remains the backbone of the economy. Despite its importance, the sector faces persistent challenges, including governance and leadership failures, weak strategic planning and execution, and poor performance monitoring. This underscores the need for strategic leadership to address these performance impediments. However, there is a limited body of empirical research examining the impact of strategic leadership on the performance of agribusiness companies in Kenya. This study investigated the effect of strategic leadership on the performance of agribusiness companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). Specifically, it examined the influence of strategic thinking, strategic implementation, strategic controls, and strategic resources on performance, and assessed the mediating role of organisational transformation in these relationships. The study was grounded in the Upper Echelons Theory, Transformational Leadership Theory, Resource-Based Theory, the Liedtka Strategic Thinking Model, Higgins’ 8S Framework, and the Balanced Scorecard Model. Employing a pragmatic philosophical worldview and a convergent parallel mixedmethods design, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected concurrently.
The study targeted all six agribusiness companies listed at the NSE and licensed by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) as of December 2024, involving 120 management-level respondents. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS Version 28.0, while qualitative responses were thematically categorised. Diagnostic tests and regression analysis were used to assess model fit and significance. Findings revealed that strategic thinking (β = 0.271, p = 0.002), strategic implementation (β = 0.515, p < 0.001), strategic controls (β = 0.211, p = 0.044), and strategic resources (β = 0.409, p < 0.001) significantly influenced performance. Organisational transformation partially mediated these relationships. The study concludes that strategic leadership is a key driver of organisational performance and recommends enhancing strategic implementation, leadership development, performance monitoring, and resource optimisation in agribusiness companies.