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MEDIATING EFFECT OF FINANCIAL INNOVATION ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL CAPITAL AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN KENYA
Full text linkThe purpose of the study was to investigate the mediating effect of financial innovation
on the relationship between organizational capital and financial performance of
Commercial Banks in Kenya. Purposely the study sought to examine the relationship
between financial knowledge and expertise and financial performance of commercial
banks in Kenya. It also evaluated the relationship between financial business process and
practice and financial performance. Assessment of the relationship between human
capital and financial performance and assess the mediating effect of financial innovation
on the relationship between organizational capital and financial performance of
commercial banks was done. A census survey was carried out on all the 41 licensed
commercial banks in Kenya. Out of the 123 respondents that were targeted, all responded
constituting a response rate of 100%. Hypotheses were tested using a combination of
multivariate techniques, including regression analysis, chi-Square, RMSEA, GFI and
NFI to address the mediating effect as well as model complexity, estimating constructs
and latent variable scores. The findings found that financial knowledge and expertise had
a positive relationship with the financial performance of commercial banks There was a
strong positive relationship between the financial business process and financial
performance of commercial banks. This implies that organizational capital leads to
enhanced financial performance. The results also revealed that there was a significant
positive relationship between human capital and financial performance of commercial
banks. The study confirmed that the combined effect of financial innovation (ATMs,
internet banking, Mobile banking and Debit cards) mediated the relationship between
organizational capital and financial performance of commercial banks. This study
contributes to understanding the mediating effect of financial innovation and financial
performance as well as confirming the finding of previous studies that have found a
significant link of mediating effect of financial innovation and financial performance of
commercial banks. The study used T statistical tests which indicated that financial
innovation had a mediating effects effect on organizational capital and financial
performance (β=0.378, p< 0.05). The study also brings out that increased understanding
of financial knowledge and expertise can enhance financial performance of Commercial
Banks. Firms should strengthen their financial business process and practice since it
plays a significant role in channeling funds to the industries as well as contributing
towards economic, financial growth and stability. Financial institutions like banks can
also enhance financial performance by building on their human capital through customer
relations, employee relations and increased customer loyalty. Several financial
performance parameters such as Return on Assets (ROA) and Earnings Before Interest
and Tax (EBIT) were used to measure the financial position for the commercial banks.
Liquidity preference Theory, Diffusion of Innovation Theory and Transaction Cost
Theory guided this study. The study was carried out in Nairobi‘s since over all of the
Commercial Banks head offices are based in Nairobi. The study respondents were the
bank operation managers, credit managers and transactional banking manager. A self administered
and open-ended questionnaire was used to collect primary data while
secondary data was obtained through documentary analysis of audited published
financial statements
SERVICE TIPPING AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE STRATEGY FOR PERFORMANCE OF HOTELS IN KENYA: A BALANCED SCORE CARD PERSPECTIVE
Full text linkAttainment of competitive advantage is an ultimate goal of any organization. Further,
the hotel industry remains extremely competitive world over; not to mention its
significance as a major foreign exchange earner in Kenya. In view of this, many hotels
have adopted a variety of strategies to keep their customers happy which has been
found to be contingent upon a happy workforce. Service tipping historically has taken
many forms including voluntary tips by customers and systematic service charge or
gratuity to appreciate hotel staff for their service. The question of whether to formalize
this practice and develop formal system or best practices for it as a strategy in the hotel
industry in Kenya has not received scholarly attention especially on its influence to
hotel performance yet it is casually very rampant. This study therefore, aimed at
determining the effect of Service Tipping as a competitive advantage strategy on
performance of hotels in Kenya using the Balanced Score Card four main performance
indicator perspectives namely financial, customer, internal business processes and
learning and growth. The four perspectives formed specific evaluation criteria on
indicators for performance to the model analysis against the independent variable of
service tipping in different characteristics and moderated by the hotel rating. A part
from empirical literature, the theories used in the study include Resource Dependency
Policy, Reciprocity and Equity Theory, Tipping Motives Framework (TMF) and
Balanced Scorecard Framework. The study adopted a mixed method including
descriptive survey and predictive correlation research designs targeting 183 star rated
hotels in Kenya. The study used a sampling formula by Yamane (1967) to arrive at a
sample size of n=126 of the star rated hotels in Kenya obtained from the Ministry of
Tourism and Wildlife classification. Data collection was mainly done through physical
dropping of the questionnaires by research assistants to hotels around towns and by
mail especially to those hotels that were inaccessible either in towns or away from
towns. The study was conducted in a period of three months using structured
questionnaires. The study used drop and pick procedure for data collection for the
required data. Due to wide distribution of Tourism Circuits where hotels are located in
Kenya, some of the questionnaires were mailed to the respondents. The study used
descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviation and percentages and inferential
statistics using Regression Analysis. The study established that service tipping affected
financial, customers satisfaction, internal business process, and learning and growth
performance of hotels in Kenya. The study established that when star rating was
introduced as a moderating variable, the relationship between service tipping and hotels
performance remained statistically significant, although the value of the regression
coefficient reduced slightly (r=1.089-1.088 = 0.001). This slight change in the
coefficient is the statistical proof that when star rating was introduced, it slightly
reduced the regression coefficient although the relationship between service tipping and
hotels performance remained statistically significant. The study recommends that
Tourism Regulatory Authority which is the policy body of Hotels in Kenya should
develop Service Tipping Policy to guide in service operations in the Star Rated Hotels
in Kenya to further improve the Star Rated Hotels performance since the study
established that service tipping positively affected Balanced Score Card performance
indicators of the hotels
The Role of IoT, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Maternal Health
Full text linkIngeniously, the innovations taking place in current medical era, where
technology plays a dynamic role in pregnant women care taking both inside hospital and
outside. Integration of Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine
Learning (ML) and Blockchain technologies is deemed to ensure the effective and
efficient care of pregnant women in any environment because intelligent tiny devices like
Radio Frequency Tags (RF-Tags), Sensors are attached with pregnant women, and all the
activities of pregnant women can be monitored by professional medical staff from
anywhere and anytime. The usage of these advanced destructive technologies in pregnant
women care environment, absolutely eradicates the pregnancy complications and harmful
incidents, but also promotes privacy, integrity and availability of maternal health systems.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the usage of IoT, artificial intelligence, machine
learning and blockchain in pregnant women healthcare environments and articulates
endorsements to promote future research and also guarantee the pregnant women’s data
privacy is preserved. The study further seeks to unveil the potential benefits of integrating
the four medical digital technologies into a single maternal healthcare application to reap
their singular benefits. The study will apply an exploratory research design to review the
existing literature on the destructive technologies and the results will be used to develop a
conceptual framework that would be used to guide future research in maternal healthcare
INFLUENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES ON MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISE SURVIVAL IN WAKISO DISTRICT, UGANDA
Full text linkMicro and Small enterprises (MSEs) in Uganda face survival challenges and many of
them collapse before celebrating their first birthday, and those that manage to reach one
year still show survival challenges. Prior studies highlight a number of reasons for failure
but do not clearly explain how entrepreneurial competencies (ECs) of the owner/manager
influence MSE survival. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of ECs
on the MSE survival in Wakiso district, Uganda using the six significant ECs as
determined by Morris‟ model. The specific objectives were to establish the influence of:
(social networking, opportunity recognition, risk management, creative problem solving,
guerrilla skills and perseverance) on MSE survival in Wakiso district, Uganda. The
descriptive survey research design using a pragmatic approach were used. Purposive
sampling was used to select five sub-counties from a total of sixteen based on their
nature of importance, such as possessing a high record of MSE failure, being rural, periurban
and
urban,
and a high concentration of MSEs. From the accessible population of
1,500 MSE owners/managers obtained from Wakiso District records of MSEs as of
2018, questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 306 of which 281 usable
questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 91.8 percent. Sub-counties were
stratifies from which respondents were obtained using simple random sampling by use of
a lottery method.Officers responsible for business operations at each sub-county were the
key informants and were interviewed. The study targeted the owners/managers of MSEs
within Wakiso district who employed from 0 – 4 people (micro) and from 5 – 50 people
(small). Multiple linear regression analysis was used to establish the influence of
entrepreneurial competencies on MSE survival in Wakiso district, Uganda and results
depited that social networking, creative problem solving, guerrilla skills, and
perseverance had a positive and statistically significant influence on MSE survival in
Wakiso district, Uganda. Opportunity recognition had a negative significant influence on
MSE survival, while Risk management was found insignificantly influencing MSE
survival. Results from interviews also showed that entrepreneurial competencies under
study were very important in contributing to MSE survival and elicited for other factors
contributing to MSE survival. The study concluded that all the entrepreneurial
competencies under study, except for risk management were contributors to MSE
survival. It was recommended that MSE owner/managers strive to utilize their social
network skills, opportunity recognition skills, creative problem solving skills, guerrilla
skills and perseverance skills maximally. They should establish short and long-term
networks with relevant stakeholders, should take advantage of opportunities that arise
after careful assessment, should utilize their creative problem solving abilities in their
product and service offering, employ tactics that are unique low cost tactics, and should
persevere at all costs during periods of adversity. MSE owners/managers should
establish forums or associations where they could facilitate the development of these
competencies further if they want to enhance business survival
Empirical Evaluation of Adaptive Optimization on the Generalization Performance of Convolutional Neural Networks
Full text linkRecently, deep learning based techniques have garnered significant interest
and popularity in a variety of fields of research due to their effectiveness in search for
an optimal solution given a finite amount of data. However, the optimization of these
networks has become more challenging as neural networks become deeper and datasets
growing larger. The choice of the algorithm to optimize a neural network is one of the
most important steps in model design and training in order to obtain a model that will
generalize well on new, previously unseen data. In deep learning, adaptive gradient
optimization methods are mostly preferred for supervised and unsupervised tasks. First,
they accelerate the training of neural networks and since mini batches are selected
randomly and are independent, an unbiased estimate of the expected gradient can be
computed. This paper examined six state-of-the-art adaptive gradient optimization
algorithms, namely, AdaMax, AdaGrad, AdaDelta, RMSProp, Nadam, and Adam on
the generalization performance of convolutional neural networks (CNN) architecture
that are extensively used in computer vision tasks. Experiments were conducted giving
comparative analysis on the behaviour of these algorithms during model training on
three large image datasets, namely, Fashion-MNIST, Kaggle Flowers Recognition and
Scene classification. The results show that Adam, Adadelta and Nadam finds the global
minimum faster in the experiments, have a better convergence curve, and higher test
set accuracy in experiments using the three datasets. These optimization approaches
adaptively tune the learning rate based only on the recent gradients; thus, controlling
the reliance of the update on the past few gradients
The Effect of Hotel Star Rating on Service Tipping Strategy and Performance of Hotels in Kenya.
Full text linkThe main purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating effect of star rating on the relationship
between service tipping and the performance of hotels in Kenya based on a Balanced Score Card Perspective.
The study was based on the following theories; Resource-Based Theory and Balanced Scorecard Framework.
First, the study adopted a descriptive quantitative survey design. The study, therefore, targeted the 183 starrated
hotels in the four circuits. Second, the study's unit of analysis included the hotel managers (general
managers, supervisors and head of departments) and service staff. Third, the researcher adopted Yamane
(1967) formula that can be used to calculate a suitable sample size of 117 hotel managers of the Star Rated
Hotels operating in Kenya. Fourth, the study used a structured questionnaire to collect the required data from
the respondents. The study established that when star rating was introduced as a moderating variable, the
relationship between service tipping and hotels performance remained statistically significant, although the
value of the regression coefficient reduced slightly (r=1.089-1.088 = 0.001). This slight change in the coefficient is
the statistical proof that when star rating was introduced, it slightly reduced the regression coefficient,
although the relationship between service tipping and hotels performance remained statistically significant.
Finally, the study recommended that the Tourism Regulatory Authority, the policy body of Hotels in Kenya,
develop a Service Tipping Policy to guide service operations in the star-rated hotels in Kenya. It also
recommends that the department of Kenya Tourism regulatory (TRA) should promote service tipping among
the star-rated hotels in Kenya
AB INITIO STUDY OF ELECTRONIC, MECHANICAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC APPLICATION
Full text linkThe ever increasing need of energy in third world countries has necessitated the need for
coming up with measures of seeking alternative energy sources. Solar energy is one of
the most important alternative sources of energy because of its abundance in these
regions. Up to this time, the use of the first and second generations solar cells made of
silicon in making solar panels has notable shortcomings such as unaffordability and lack
of longevity of the electric power generated. In this regard, therefore, this study purposes
to establish ideal photovoltaic properties which increases the durability and efficiency of
CH3 NH3 PbI3 solar cells. The purpose of this work was to study computationally the
electronic, mechanical and optical properties of CH vii 3 NH3 PbI3 and its potential application
in photovoltaic. The specific objectives include determining electronic, mechanical and
optical properties of CH3 NH3 PbI3 from first principles and to establish the ideal
properties of CH3 NH3 PbI3 for photovoltaic applications. Electronic, mechanical and
optical properties of CH3 N3 PbI3 were calculated using ab initio methods specifically
Quantum Espresso code. The norm conserving pseudo potential was used. Band gap was
calculated as 1.58 eV which is close to the experimental value which is approximately
1.56 eV. Elastic constant parameters such as bulk modulus B, Young’s modulus E, shear
modulus G and Poisson’s ratio ν were calculated using the Voigt–Reuss–Hill averaging
scheme. Our calculated lattice parameter a is 6.39 Å comparable to experimental value
of 6.33 Å while the Poisson’s ratio () in this work is 0.25 and experimental value is
0.28.Optical properties like real 1 and imaginary part ( 2) of dependent dielectric
function and absorption coefficient were calculated and discussed. The calculated values
of all parameters were compared with the available experimental and theoretical values.
There is a fairly good agreement between experimental data and this computational
work. These findings establish systematic design rules to achieve silicon like efficiencies
in a basic CH3 NH3 PbI3 perovskite solar cell
Rethinking Patricia Asero Ochieng and Two Others v. The Attorney General and another
Full text linkIn 2012, the High Court of Kenya at Nairobi declared Section
2 of the Anti-Counterfeit Act (ACA) unconstitutional because its
enforcement would limit access to affordable and essential drugs
and medicines and thereby undermine the right to life, human
dignity and health as guaranteed under the Constitution of Kenya.
This case review revisits this important judgement by Justice
Mumbi Ngugi with the aim of analysing it for legal soundness.
Further, this review discusses the likely impact of the judgement on
the fight against counterfeit drugs and access to drugs in Kenya. On
the other hand, there will be a comparison between Kenyan legal
system and some foreign laws. The review argues that the judge
applied the wrong legal principles in making her determination,
arriving at a legally flawed conclusion, thereby nullifying the
balance between the rights of intellectual property rights owners
and users as established under the Industrial Property Act
Human Rights Implications from the Perspective of Marine Cultural Heritage: Framework and Guidelines for Training and Free, Prior and Informed Consent
Full text linkThe Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) is one of the largest
infrastructure projects in Kenya. It is being carried out as one of the flagship projects under Kenya’s
Vision 2030. 1 The project spans three countries: Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia, but the benefits
anticipated from the project are expected to span the entire Eastern African region. It is a major
infrastructure development project that involves developing a transport corridor from a new Port in
Lamu through the towns of Garissa, Isiolo, Maralal, Lodwar and Lokichoggio to branch at Isiolo to
Ethiopia and South Sudan. 2 The corridor is made up of a new road network, railway line, oil refinery
at Lamu, oil pipeline, Lamu Airport and free port at Lamu (Manda Bay) in addition to resort cities at
the coast and in Isiolo. 3 The project is expected to spur economic growth in Kenya and open up
regions which were hitherto underdeveloped. In March, 2013, the LAPSSET Corridor Development
Authority was created to plan, coordinate and manage implementation of all LAPSSET projects
INFLUENCE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP ON IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT POLICIES BY KAKAMEGA COUNTY GOVERNMENT, KENYA
Full text linkImplementation of Human Resource Management policies by governments in developing
countries has not translated into development and quality service delivery. Leadership is
integral to achieving government goals. This study aimed to establish influence of
transformational leadership on implementation of Human Resource Management
policies by County Government of Kakamega. Five study objectives included; to
establish the influence of idealized influence on implementation of Human Resource
Management policies; to establish the influence of inspirational motivation on
implementation of Human Resource Management policies; to establish the influence of
intellectual stimulation on implementation of Human Resource Management policies; to
establish the influence of individualized consideration on implementation of Human
Resource Management policies; and to establish the moderating influence of political
leadership on implementation of Human Resource Management policies by County
Government of Kakamega. A descriptive research design and quantitative method
involving use of questionnaire as the primary data collection instrument was adopted.
The study population comprised all the 6,328 County Government of Kakamega
permanent employees. Both stratified sampling and simple random sampling techniques
were applied to get a sample size of 165 respondents. A pilot study was conducted in
Bungoma County where the study checked for internal consistency and reliability of the
instrument for data collection. Cronbach‘s coefficient alpha of 0.967 was obtained for
internal reliability. Ethics governing research were accorded utmost consideration. A
93.3% return rate was attained, good for social statistics analysis. The Statistical Package
for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data in the study. Pearson Product
Moment Correlation Coefficient and regression were used in analysis within 95%
confidence interval to test for associations, relationships and independence of indicators.
Study findings revealed a significant and positive relationship between idealized
influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized
consideration when correlated with implementation of Human Resource Management
Policies. The study however revealed a significant negative relationship between
political leadership by Kakamega County Government and Implementation of Human
Resource Management Policies. Partial Correlation in first order and zero order
controlling for political leadership by Kakamega County government revealed that
political leadership had a significant negative influence on the relationship between
transformational leadership and implementation of Human Resource Management
Policies. Study findings were in agreement with empirical evidence from previous
studies on how idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and
individualized consideration influenced implementation of Human Resource
Management Policies, particularly in public organizations. Based on the study findings,
it was concluded that transformational leadership had a significant positive influence on
implementation of Human Resource Management policies by Kakamega County
Government. The study therefore stretches the frontiers of knowledge on the nexus
between transformational leadership and implementation of Human Resource
Management policies and recommends enhancement of reward policy, strengthening of
training and development policy and formulation of moderative discipline policy in
Kenya