Strategic management has been widely recognised as very potent tools for enhancing organisational performance, productivity and competitive advantage of organisations.Therefore, this study explores the use of one of the multivariate analysis (Principal Component Analysis) to determine factors that influence the strategic management practices of commercial banks in Nigeria. The study was guided by one objective and one research question. The descriptive survey research design was adopted and the population of the study comprised 1164 employees in the seventeen (17) commercial banks in Nigeria and a sample size of 298 employees of commercial banks was estimated using Taro Yamane Formula. The instrument used in data collection was Factors Affecting Strategic Management Practices Questionnaire (FASMPQ). The instrument was validated by experts and reliability of the instruments was established using Cronbach Alpha and result yielded reliability coefficient of 0.84. Data obtained were analyzed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the result revealed that political and legal environment, demography, socio-cultural environment, economic environment and technological environment were the five major factors that influence strategic management practices. The findings also showed that environmental factors have major influence on strategic management practices among commercial banks in Nigeria. Therefore, it is recommended among other things that commercial banks in the study area should focus on the environmental factor such as political and legal environment, technological environment, economic environment, global and socio-cultural environment as these influence strategic management practices in commercial banks in Nigeria.
Keywords: : Strategic Management Practices, Multivariate Analysis, Principal Component Analysis
