THE INFLUENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND PERFORMANCE OF STARTUPS IN NAIROBI CITY COUNTY.

Abstract

The need for the establishment of influencing mechanisms for nurturing new ideas into actual
business, especially on new technological platforms necessitates entrepreneurial orientation,
to secure networks that guarantee growth. The study sought to establish whether
entrepreneurial orientation, influence performance of startups in Nairobi City County,
Kenya. The specific objective was to establish the influence of entrepreneurial orientation on
performance of startups in Nairobi City County. The study adopted a positivist research
philosophical reasoning to exploring new knowledge through verification of observable
evidence. This approach enabled the researcher to derive information logically from
empirical data using scientific method thereby testing the hypotheses about the constructs
under theoretical underpinnings. This study followed a cross-sectional survey design
because it assured similar data collection procedure and precise verification across many
respondents at a particular point in time. It further provided the researcher with an
opportunity to record population characteristics and test the hypotheses appropriately. The
study successfully obtained 210 responses from startups who had used the services of any of
the five business incubators situated within Nairobi City County. This study applied
Structural Equation Method (SEM) to analyse data and deduce conclusions. The study
findings indicate that entrepreneurial orientation explains significantly the performance of
start-ups in Nairobi City County (β=.7876, P=0.000) holding other factors constant. The
study thus recommends for the need of pro-activeness in entrepreneurial orientation by
business owners as a demonstration of a characteristic of forward-looking to upcoming
opportunities that provide business an advantage. The government at national and county
level ought to develop policies that will ensure young entrepreneurs are trained by
establishing functional institutions that nurture ideas and hatch them into business. Such
move will enhance transmission of ideas, information, networking and research to the
market. This will be supported by establishing operational framework that increases
awareness on risk mitigation, innovative behavior and pro-activeness characteristics which
must be present to ensure startup survival, better financial health and increase employment
opportunities. The theory of entrepreneurship suggest that entrepreneurship has a rare
ability to mobilise resources and therefore mitigates the risk elements in undertaking new

businesses. Since entrepreneurs undertake socially economic engagements that are outside
their routine tasks and sometimes resisted by environmental dynamics there is an urgent need
to encourage and protect them by reducing the risks they take (Leach, Stirling & Scoones,
2010).
Key Words: Entrepreneurial Orientation, Performance of startups in Nairobi City County,
Kenya.