Effect of Collaborative Awareness on Supply Chain Agility of Cosmetics Manufacturing Firms in the County Government of Nairobi, Kenya (Published)

Article Author: Pauline Jeruto Keitany, Josphat Kwasira, Rose Boit, Joel C. Chelule

Global competition within firms has forced most manufacturing industries to become more innovative and strategic in their supply chain practices. One way of achieving this is through Supply Chain Agility. The study focussed to assess the Effect of Collaborative Awareness on Supply Chain Agility of Cosmetic Manufacturing Firms in the County Government of Nairobi, Kenya. Relational View theory, Resource Based View Theory and Stategy, Structure and Performance Theory was adopted in the study. Cross-sectional survey research design was used in the study. The target population of the study was 714 employees working in the Cosmetic Manufacturing Firms in the County Government of Nairobi, Kenya. A sample of 256 was selected from the target population using a Multi Stage Sampling Technique. Both descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyse the collected data. The results of the study reveal that collaborative awareness contributes positively to supply chain agility of cosmetics manufacturing firms in the County Government of Nairobi.Generally, majority of the respondents agreed that Collaborative Awareness contributes positively to Supply Chain Agility of Cosmetics Manufacturing Firms in the County Government of Nairobi. The results also indicates that there is a positive and statistically significant correlation between collaborative awareness and supply chain agility (r=0.505, p<0.001). This implies that collaborative awareness enhances supply chain agility of cosmetics manufacturing firms in the County Government of Nairobi. As evidenced from the results it can be concluded that collaborative awareness positively affects the Supply Chain Agility of Cosmetics Manufacturing Firms and as such the firms should constantly be in collaboration with their partners since it one of the strategies employed by firms to deal with uncertainties. Interesting findings might be obtained from studies that explore integral relationship strategies in other industries or settings.