Enterprise Resource Planning System and Performance of Tea Factories Owned by Small-scale Farmers in Bomet and Kericho Counties, Kenya

The adoption of digital technologies in agribusiness has become increasingly important as organizations seek to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance decision-making processes in highly competitive markets. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have therefore gained prominence among agricultural processing industries, including tea factories, due to their ability to integrate business functions such as finance, procurement, production, and inventory management into a single coordinated system. The study examined the effect of enterprise resource planning implementation on performance of tea factories owned by small-scale farmers in Bomet and Kericho Counties. The study studied the effect of change management, system integration, user awareness and data migration on the performance of small-scale tea factories in Bomet and Kericho. Technology Acceptance Model, Resource-Based View theory, and Diffusion of Innovation Theory served as the theoretical foundations guiding this study. The research adopted a descriptive methodological design. Data was gathered through primary instrument and the target population consisted of 60 participants for the quantitative survey. Making the entire target population 60. The sample size for the study was 60 respondents and a census approach was utilized. Research instrument validity and reliability was assessed through a pilot test. Data was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Descriptive statistics, including tables, measures of central tendency, and charts, was utilized to present the results. Inferential statistics was used to illustrate the relationships between variables. There was a diagnostics tests for heteroskedasticity, multicollinearity, normalcy and autocorrelation. All ethical requirements governing the conduct of research was strictly observed throughout the research. The results indicated that change management had an insignificant positive effect on performance. System integration effect was significant and positive effect on the performance of the factories. User awareness was found to be insignificantly negative on the performance of these factories. Findings of data migration disclosed a significant positive effect on the performance of tea factories owned by small-scale tea plants in Bomet and Kericho counties. It is thus recommended that the management of tea factories ought to invest in sound system integration strategies that would provide a smooth connection among the enterprise resource planning modules.