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EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AS A COMPETITIVE STRATEGY ON SALES PERFORMANCE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN NAKURU CBD
No full textFULL TEXTThe importance of social media in enhancing positive relationships between customers and business cannot be ignore since they offer new and innovative ways to communicate and network via the internet. Currently, there are various platforms provided by the social media networks such as Facebook, Google plus, LinkedIn, YouTube, Skype, WhatsApp and Twitter which are used as tools for marketing. Social media has opened a new perspective in the way business is conducted. Technology acceptance model theory and social media marketing theory was used in this research to provide deep understanding in social media. The study sought to determine effects of social media marketing strategies on performance of small and medium enterprise in Nakuru Central Business District. The study was guided by the following objectives: To establish the social media strategies adopted by small and medium enterprises to enhance sales performance in Nakuru CBD, to explore the use of social media by small and medium enterprises in customer acquisition, to determine how the adopted social media strategies help SMEs in improving customer service and customer retention, to examine the effectiveness of social media marketing in influencing buying decisions. The research adopted survey design. The study targeted the 350 registered small and medium enterprises in Nakuru CBD. The sample for the study was 78 small and medium businesses. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select the small and medium enterprises, Primary data was collected by the use of structured questionnaires which was designed and administered to the respondents. The finding indicated that marketing strategies and customer acquisition affect up to 10.8% and 50.9% positive variation in sales performance among SMEs respectively. Additionally, buying decision and Customer Service affect 3.3% and 40.6% positive variation in Sales Performance among SMEs. Conversely, Customer Retention affects 2.6% negative variation in sales performance among SMEs. The study recommends that online marketing strategies should be improved by SMEs in order to increase their sales performance. Secondly, SMEs should have a clear customer acquisition framework in order to have a sustainable target market segment. Moreover, customer service should be advanced to attract more online customers. Additionally, retention strategies of customers should be expanded to increase on sales performance. Finally, buying decisions being a major concern that affect negatively sales performance should be reinforced and made flexible
The Effect of Teaching Using Preferred Learning Styles on Students’ Performance, in Biology and Geography in Secondary Schools in Nairobi County, Kenya
No full textFULL TEXTIn Nairobi County, students in both private and public schools have not been performing
satisfactorily in sciences. A study therefore was done to establish the effect of matching of
teaching styles with preferred leaning styles of students’ performance in biology and
geography. Multivariate analysis of variance in geography F (1, 1315) = 2870.1, p = .000) and
in biology F (1, 1315) = 2994.1, p = .000), and linear regression in geography, F (1, 1315) =
2870.056, p = .000, and in biology, F (1, 1315) = 2994.137, p = .000analysis showed statistically
significant effect on performance of students taught using preferred learning styles. The findings
lead to a conclusion that there is a need to inform teachers to identify, and teach their learners
according to the learners’ preferred learning styles to enhance their performance in sciences.National Research Fun
INVESTIGATE THE SECURITY CHALLENGES IN SAAS PRIVATE CLOUD USING OWNCLOUD
Get PDFCloud storage is becoming a fast emerging resource used for storage of information by corporates and organizations
as a substitute to get data available anywhere and anytime. Cloud entities such as cloud service providers, users and
business associates share the offered resources at diverse levels of technological operations. The cloud computing
model is considered to be a very capable and able internet-based computing platform, which offers numerous benefits
like mobility, flexibility, reliability and cost-effectiveness. However, like any other technology, cloud computing is
not without a challenge or as problem free as it may seem. This paper intended to investigate the security challenges
in private SaaS clouds and this was done with the aid of OwnCloud, which is an open-source cloud storage platform.
Users were given access to the experimental cloud to collect details on the threats and vulnerabilities associated with
the cloud. The challenges identified were specific to small businesses and SMEs. The research yielded numerous
challenges including insider threats, improper data deletion, bandwidth issues, hacking, repudiation issues and
government laws. Further to this, strategies and countermeasures to mitigate these challenges were suggested so that
small organizations can understand their cloud security better as well as implement security in an effective manner
DEVELOPING A THREAT MATRIX FOR SMART MOBILE DEVICES IN A UNIVERSITY NETWORK TOWARDS A SECURE LOCAL AREA NETWORK ECOSYSTEM
No full textFULL TEXTThe need by staff and students to use smart mobile devices in university network is indisputable. This is because they help them to work and study more effectively as well as achieve better work-life balance. However smart mobile devices pose a security challenge as they continue to expand the corporate network unchecked thus increasing the attack surface. This creates a major security burden to security professionals who are supposed to ensure that smart mobile devices’ adherence to the security policy. The purpose of this study was to propose a solution on how to determine the likelihood of threat attack in a university network. The objectives of the study were to assess threats introduced to the university network through smart mobile devices, to develop a threat matrix that computes likelihood of threat attack, to identify security requirements needed for a secure university LAN ecosystem and to test and validate the matrix. Case study research design was adopted where Egerton University was selected as a case study with 384 respondents from all the campuses as target population. Response rate of 80% was recorded and considered sufficient for the study. The matrix was designed based on five of the ISO 27001’s domains which closely relate to operation of smart mobile devices in a corporate network. Regression analysis was used to determine the Functional weights to compute likelihood of attack. The matrix was implemented as a web-based application using Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) as server-side scripting language, MySQL was employed as a database engine and Bootstrap 4 was used for styling user interface. The developed threat matrix acted as threat and risk assessment tool to provide recommendations that maximize the protection of confidentiality, integrity and availability of university data while still providing functionality and usability of smart mobile devices
Kabarak University International Research Conference on Translational and Preventive Healthcare
No full textFULL TEXTNational Research Fun
The Relationship between Secondary School Students’ Attributes and their Attitudes Towards Agriculture Subject: The Case of Migori District, Kenya
No full textFULL TEXTStudents acquire attitudes within their classrooms, in their homes and within their community.
The study focused on secondary school students attributes related to their attitudes towards
agriculture as a subject and as career goal of students within Migori district of Kenya. Success in
the subject and decision to pursue agriculture at secondary levels could be attributed to their
personal attributes. Enrolment in agriculture as a subject and as a career goal in Migori depends
on positive attitudes cultivated amongst the students. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey
research design. The target population consisted of all the form 4 students in Migori district who
had made subject choices and had enrolled for Kenya National Examinations Council while the
accessible population included the form 4 students in the 6 schools purposely selected for the
study. Random sampling technique was used to select 100 form 4 students both taking and those
not taking agriculture subject from both rural and urban district schools. A questionnaire with
reliability coefficient of 0.85 and had both closed and open-ended items was used to collect data.
Data was processed and analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to test the
hypotheses. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 17 was used for the analyses. The
study found out that the attitudes of school students towards agriculture as a subject and career
choice was low. It concluded that there was no evidence to show that the student attitudes were
related to the attributes studied. The study recommends that parents, teachers of agriculture and
universities with programs which prepare professionals for agriculture-related careers to
cooperate with secondary schools to provide information about a wide variety of agricultural
careers and make visits to schools and produce high quality media which positively portray the
wider range of opportunities of careers in agriculture.National Research Fun
RETSA - Real Time Security Alert
No full textFULL TEXTInsecurity is a major challenge in our current world today. Millions of shillings and property
has been lost, many lives has been lost due to insecurity. It is high time to embrace innovation
and invention of ways to curb the societal problems like this. That is why there is need to come
up with faster security alert systems. This innovation is alert system that notifies the owner or
users on an illegal access to their property. The system ensures the property access points are
secured with active detectors that signal the main system to alert the owner of illegal access.
Therefore ensuring that the owner can monitor his property wherever he or she is e.g. outside
country, outside the locality. Due to this challenge the (RETSA – Real Time Security Alert)
system that notifies the owner or users on an illegal access to their property was developed. The
system ensures the property access points are secured with active detectors that signal the main
system – (RETSA) to alert the owner of illegal access. Therefore ensuring that the owner can
monitor his property wherever he or she is e.g. outside country, outside the locality.National Research Fun
Influence of Institutional Context Factors on Female Students’ Career Choice in TVET Science Programmes in Technical Training Institutes in Siaya County, Kenya
No full textFULL TEXTChoice of science-based careers by female students in Technical and Vocational Education and
Training (TVET) institutes and particularly Technical and Training Institutes (TTIs) has attracted
a lot of attention of education planners, economists and administrators the world over. To that
extent, the government of Kenya has made numerous interventions including lowering of college
entry points to favor female students. In spite of such affirmative action, female students
choosing careers in TVET science programmes are still few and especially in Siaya County,
Kenya. The purpose of this proposed study was to determine the Influence of institutional
context factors on female students’ career choice in TVET science programmes in Technical
Training Institutes in Siaya County, Kenya. The objective of this study is to establish the
influence of institutional context factors on female students’ career choice in TVET science
programmes in Technical Training Institutes in Siaya County, Kenya. The study was adopted
descriptive survey design. The sample size for the study was 437 female students, 121 lecturers
and 327 male respondents. Census, proportionate and simple random sampling techniques was
used to select respondents in different strata and TTIs. The finding of the study showed that
Institutional Context Factors have a significant influence of 22.8% with negative variation on
Female Students’ Career Choice in Science TVET Programmes. The study recommended that
institutional factors must be strengthened to enable more female students to choose careers in
TVET science programmes.National Research Fun
ASSESSING KENYA’S COOPERATIVE MODEL OF DEVOLUTION: A SITUATION-SPECIFIC ANALYSIS
Get PDFKenya’s form of quasi-federalism termed devolution was introduced under the Constitution of Kenya (2010) (‘2010 Constitution’). This governance system establishes 47 county governments which are constitutionally independent sub-national units with direct election of county level leaders. Given the complexity of devolution’s relationship to national politics, as well as the broad variation in how devolution has unfolded in the 47 counties since 2013, this article argues in favour of a situation-specific assessment of devolution in Kenya. This analysis departs from the emerging scholarly consensus of devolution in Kenya represented in two predominant approaches. One approach contends that devolution in Kenya has simply devolved corruption and patronage from the national to the county level. Another approach argues that devolution has so far been relatively successful because it has introduced a new political system at the county level that has a robust system of checks and balances but that has empowered a new dynamic in Kenya’s politics at the sub-national level. This article argues the first approach paints the emerging devolution experience with a broad brush that is not reflected in every county or even on every issue. This article has more in common with the second view. However, we argue for a more situation-specific, case by case analysis of devolution to show variations in how devolution has or has not facilitated the delivery of services and opportunities that were prior to 2013 likely to be unavailable particularly in the most economically disadvantaged counties
Students’ Perception of the Teaching Profession as Antecedents of Sustainability in Teacher Education
No full textFULL TEXTSustainability and sustainable development have increasingly become critical issues in teacher
education and development. Since sustainable development in education is impossible without
the professional competence of teachers, there has been a growing pressure for the reorientation
of teacher education all over the world and Kenya in particular. However, the transformations in
higher learning in Kenya have not been examined to establish the extent to which sustainability
have been integrated. This paper explores students’ perception of the teaching profession as an
antecedent of sustainability in teacher education in Kenya. The present research was based on the
socio-psychological model of sustainable behavior. Ex post facto cross-sectional design was used
and purposive sampling methods was used to select four institutions of higher learning in Kenya.
A structured self-response questionnaire and interview schedule. Quantitative data was analyzed
by use of descriptive and inferential statistics using statistical tools with the aid of the Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0. A sample of 376 respondents filled the
questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 94%. The observed mean age was 22 years with
standard deviation of 2.23. Among respondents 216(57.4%) were male while 160(42.6%) we
female. Research findings indicate that high 220(59%) percentages of respondents perceived
sustainability in teacher education followed by moderate 148(39%) with a combined perception
levels of 98%. This presents an implication that the idea of sustainability in teacher education has
great potential for future developments in the programme. These study findings present
significant implications for teacher preparation strategies for sustainable development in
education. The study findings also shed light on the state of preparedness as well as advances
made in Kenyan higher education in compliance with global trends in best practices for teacher
education in face of sustainable development.National Research Fun