The Moderating Effect of Organizational Culture on the Relationship between Knowledge Transfer Strategy and Performance of Medium Size Family Owned Businesses in Selected Counties in Kenya

Family owned medium businesses contribute significantly to Kenyan economic development. Despite this vital contribution, family owned medium enterprises have been performing poorly. Profits, sales growth, intergenerational transition and family members’ satisfaction has been proved to be low. Extant literature shows that knowledge transfer strategy may influence performance of medium size family owned businesses and organizational culture may moderate the relationship. This study therefore sought to establish the moderating effect of organizational culture on the relationship between knowledge transfer strategy and performance of medium size family owned businesses in Kenya. The study was premised on institutional and balanced scorecard theory. The philosophy applied was positivism while the research design was descriptive and explanatory approaches. The study targeted four senior managers of 320 mid-size family businesses in selected counties in Kenya. Proportionate stratified sampling of the manufacturing, service and trade sectors were used to establish a representative sample of 560 respondents. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data, and a document review guide was used to obtain secondary data. Face, construct, and content validity were all ensured with the help of experts and supervisors, as well as confirmatory factor analysis with factor loadings of 0.4 or above. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to measure reliability, and a coefficient of 0.7 was found to be satisfactory. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Inferential analysis examined moderating effect of organizational cultute on the relationship between knowledge transfer strategy and performance of medium size family owned businesses in Kenya through the use of multivariate analysis and hypothesis testing. Results were presented using charts and tables. It was established that firm culture has positive and significant moderating effect on the link between knowledge transfer strategy and medium size family owned businesses performance in selected counties in Kenya. The study recommends that family owned medium size businesses should empower both family and non-family staff members to make decisions for the best interest of the organization. Such firms should also involve professionals who could even be non-family members in management of the businesses. Medium size family owned businesses should also have a working organizational structure where every position whether held by a family or non-family member is respected

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].