Influence of Market Development Strategies on Organizational Performance of Kenyan Public Universities

Market development involves selling an already existing product into a market that was not buying the product before; the strategy can involve selling the product to different customer segment, selling the product in a new area or regions in which the product was not being sold or even in markets out of the country. This study aimed to investigate the adoption of market development strategies and its relationship with the organizational performance of public universities in Kenya. Market development strategies are important in promoting the performance of organizations, including public universities. Public universities in Kenya are faced with increasing competition government funding for public universities has been inadequate, leading to a strain on resources and a need for alternative sources of revenue and declining enrolment numbers, leading to a need to develop effective market development strategies to remain competitive and achieve their goals. Market development strategies have been defined as the process of identifying and targeting new market segments for existing products or service This study aims to explore the influence of market development strategy on the organizational performance of public universities in Kenya. Market development strategy should focus on identifying and exploiting opportunities in existing markets, exploring new markets, and diversifying product or service offerings. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the mean adoption score for market development strategies and the mean organizational performance score. Inferential statistics were used to analyze the correlation between the adoption of market development strategies and financial performance and to conduct a regression analysis to identify factors that influence the adoption of market development strategies among public universities in Kenya. The results showed that public universities in Kenya have moderate to high levels of adoption of market development strategies and relatively good organizational performance. A positive and significant relationship was found between the adoption of market development strategies and organizational performance. The adoption of market development strategies was found to be influenced by location and type of university, with urban and research universities adopting more market development strategies than rural and teaching universities. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the adoption of market development strategies by public universities in Kenya and its impact on their organizational performance. The findings suggest that public universities in Kenya can improve their financial performance by adopting market development strategies and by considering location and type of university in their strategy formulation. The study also provides insights for policymakers and university administrators on the importance of market development strategies in improving the organizational performance of public universities.