Information related to financial performance of the enterprise showed that core competency, collaboration, supplier relationship management and green supply chain management had significantly improved financial performance measured in terms of profitability, market share and cash management. However, further assessment revealed challenges confronting the enterprise including financial constraints, lack of competent and well trained staff, unhealthy price related competition in the enterprise, counterfeiting enterprise’ products, unfair competition and substandard raw materials, lack of business management skills, unfriendly government regulations which are some of the challenges hindering development of small and medium enterprises in the country.
Other challenges identified include low quality of raw materials, unfavorable market regulations, disloyalty among the employees, low motivation from top management on implementation of systems and processes that will create a competitive advantage as well as complexity of requirements raised by customers.
5.3 Limitations of the Study
The limitations experienced while carrying out the study included; unwillingness of respondents to fill questionnaires and it took a lot of persuasion for some managers to permit the questionnaires to be administered in the enterprise. The study was carried out within a short time span hence inconveniencing the respondents and the research only targeted small and medium enterprises operating in Kenya especially in Ruiru and therefore may not be generalizable to the whole country and beyond.