Stakeholder Patronage as Influencers Of Micro-Enterprise Growth At Kamukunji In Nairobi, Kenya

Several studies show that significant relationship exists between stakeholder patronage and micro-enterprise growth. Although the roles of factors such as family, friends, debtors, employees, and partners have been widely studied, their influences on growth of sales, employees, departments, and divisions have been generally ignored. To bridge this gap, the paper investigates how stakeholder patronage of 354 micro-enterprises sampled from Kamukunji Jua Kali Association membership register impacts positively or negatively on vertical and horizontal growth. Data were collected using in a face-toface interview using a self-administered structured questionnaire and analysed by factor and multi-level analyses. Results indicate that stakeholder patronage model (65.33 percent variance explained), Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO = .87) and Bartlett s test of sphericity (.001) remain conceptually valid. Tests of 13 hypotheses indicates that stakeholder patronage of 76.92 percent acceptance moderately influence growth.