Effect Of E-Procurement Practices On The Operational Performance Of Manufacturing Firms In Mombasa County, Kenya

The adoption of e-procurement platforms enables the organization to reduce business cost, \naccess wider market and streamline purchasing processes. However, the advantages of eprocurement \nhave varied depending on the implementation context; but the overall impact \nwhen applied appropriately has been indisputable. The title of this study was to explore the \ninfluence of e-procurement practices on operational performance of manufacturing firms \nin Mombasa County. The objectives of the study were to determine the e-procurement \npractices employed by manufacturing firms in Mombasa County and to examine the effect \nof e-procurement practices on the operational performance of manufacturing firms in \nMombasa County. Operational performance which was the dependent variable and eprocurement \npractices that consist of e-ordering, e-tendering, e-invoicing, e-sourcing and \ne-payment formed the independent variable. This study adopted a cross sectional \ndescriptive survey research design and the population was 41 manufacturing firms in \nMombasa County. The study used original data which was obtained through the use of a \nstandardized questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to the e-procurement \nmanagers of manufacturing firms in Mombasa and one respondent per firm was surveyed. \nRegression analysis was employed to determine the association between dependent and \nindependent variables. The results of e-procurement practices and operational performance \nestablished that e-procurement practices accounted for 79.8% of the variation in overall \noperational performance of manufacturing firms in Mombasa. More importantly, the \nresults established that the effect of e-tendering and e-payment on operational performance \nwas positive and significant. Based on these findings therefore, proper installation of eprocurement \npractices has an overall positive and significant effect on the operational \nperformance of manufacturing firms. In conclusion, the study mainly found that the effect \nof e- tendering and e-payment on the operational performance of manufacturing firms was \npositive and significant. It is therefore the recommendation of this study that manufacturing \nfirms should embrace e-tendering and e-payment more and more because of the strong and \npositive effect that the two have on operational performance of manufacturing firms.