With the rapid changes in automation and technologies and advent of COVID-19, commercial banks have been forced to speed up the implementation of digital strategies as a way of attaining competitive advantage. The objective of this study was to establish the challenges of implementation of digitization strategies and competitive advantage by international Tier 1 commercial banks in Kenya. This research was based on two theories; the national competitive advantage theory and the chaos theory of management. This study applied a case study design and used an interview guide to collect qualitative data from the nine Tier 1 international commercial banks in Kenya. The target respondents in the 9 Tier 1 commercial banks were the Chief Information System Directors. This study applied the content analysis method to analyze the collected qualitative data. The study findings determined that in most of the international tier 1 commercial banks, formulation and implementation of digital strategies was an interdepartmental process that incorporated two or more departments. The study also determined that all the banks had digital strategies in place prior to COVID-19 pandemic's outbreak in the nation, but had to enhance the scope and accelerate implementation due to COVID-19. Findings indicated that the international tier 1 commercial banks implemented various digital strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic which included digitization of more banking processes and services, partnerships with FinTechs and Telecoms, introduction of digital signatures and workflow automation. Besides, findings indicated that other digital strategies executed included allowing employees to work remotely, upgrading their systems, expanding online banking services, improving aesthetics of digital platforms and upgrading security over systems and increasing allocation of resources. The study findings determined that the commercial banks faced a variety of challenges that included cyber security risks, wastage of resources and time in remote working, regulatory challenges, internet access, increase in emergency investments and resistance to change. The study determined that the digital strategies that were executed by the commercial banks were critical to their ability to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. Based on the findings and conclusions, the study leads to the following recommendations. To begin with, the study recommends that digital strategy formulation and implementation should be an interdepartmental effort and process. Incorporating various departments in the formulation and implementation of digital strategy, it is recommended that commercial banks should have the agility in their culture, strategies and processes so that they can cope with chaos such as those that were brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, top leadership and policy makers should work together in dealing with the challenges of executing digital strategies. The top management should ensure that there are adequate policies and resources to cope with the challenges such as cyber-security, internal efficiency, remote working and connectivity. Besides, it is recommended that CBK should expedite the review and approval of new digital products and services by the commercial banks during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the future.

Every country aims at achieving economic growth and many policies are formulated with this goal in mind. Financial development is key to improving economic growth. This study sought to determine the relationship between financial deepening and economic growth in Kenya. The study is based on three theories that is Financial Repression Theory, Finance Growth Theory and Financial Intermediation Theory. The study used descriptive research design. This study relied on secondary data sources which included the Central Bank of Kenya, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and Market Capitalization. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze quantitative data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. Findings showed a positive significant relationship between broad money supply and economic growth (r= 0.711, p-value=0.000); a negative significant relationship between interest rates and economic growth at (r= -.323, p-value=0.003); a positive significant correlation between credit to private sector and economic growth (r= 0.449, p-value=0.001); significant relationship between foreign direct investments and economic growth (r= 0.349, p-value=0.002) and an insignificant relationship between market capitalization and economy growth (r= 0.7, p-value=0.000). Policymakers should adopt favorable monetary policies that help reduce the exchange rate, to boost foreign direct investment and improving economic growth. To attract and channel foreign direct investment (FDI) to more productive and comparatively advantaged manufacturing for exports, government supply-side strategies such as government subsidies and tax refunds are proposed. This aims to boost domestic producers' productivity and export supply capacity, as well as their efficiency.

The business environment continually changes and if firms do not adjust to the fast changing needs of consumers, the changing competitive landscapes, and the need to acquire competent talent, their operations could be unprofitable. Given the unpredictable nature of the business environment, organizations are expected to be agile. There is a need for SMEs to rapidly and proactively identify and adapt to changes in the environment to mitigate the risk of being out-done by their competitors and to serve their customers well. This research investigated the link between organizational agility and performance of SMEs in Nairobi County. Judgmental sampling design was used and a sample size of 99 SMEs was selected from which 84 fully completed questionnaires were gathered and data analyzed. Employee engagement has a positive and significant influence while IT systems adoption and customer engagement were noted to have insignificant negative effects on SMEs performance. It was noted that 99.2% change in SMEs performance was explained for by change in employee engagement. The study recommends that top management should ensure employee commitment and locality which will then transcend to improved services delivery to their clients. However, IT adoption and customer engagement should not be avoided but their implementation should start with equipping employees with skills and competencies to not only meet customers' expectations – but exceed them.

Communications value chain has grown tremendously. Commercialized mobile networks have shifted from 1G to 2G, to 3G, to 4G and currently to 5G. 5G technology has been lauded as being disruptive and revolutionary by many commentators. The regulatory realm is expected to be also disrupted by 5G technology. Identifying key regulatory elements is the first step in examining the regulatory implications of 5G technology. Access regulation, consumer protection, competition enforcement and economic regulation, intellectual property, privacy and data protection, resource management, network security, taxation, and universal service and accessibility are some of the general elements of mobile communication ecosystem regulation. It is evident that 5G regulation must be broadened or linked to areas that are currently unregulated or only lightly regulated but will become part of the developing industrial ecosystem. This begs the question whether the current regulatory framework in Kenya will be disrupted by 5G technology thus occasioning reforms. This study analyses eight key strands of regulatory issues occasioned by 5G technology: Net neutrality; privacy and security; infrastructure sharing; deployment; spectrum allocation; mobile network standards; service diversification and bundling; and competition. These legal issues must be effectively addressed for efficient deployment of 5G networks. This study seeks to test the efficacy of the legal and institutional framework in Kenya in addressing these issues. This study also seeks to draw lessons from five jurisdictions. These are: South Africa, South Korea, Singapore, the US and the EU. These lessons will be vital in the establishment of 5G Roadmap in Kenya. South Africa was the 5G trailblazer in Africa. This study reviews regulatory practices from developed countries to draw lessons.

As the aviation industry grows globally, the general aviation segment in Kenya has made tremendous development both in air traffic and investment. The gains, however, have led to an increased pressure on management level personnel. The main objective of this research was to examine the factors affecting job satisfaction among management level employees in general aviation industry in Kenya. Specifically, the research examined the levels of job satisfaction among management employees, analysed factors affecting management level employees and challenges facing management level employees. Two- factor theory, ability motivation opportunity theory, theory of action acted as the guide and anchoring theories for the research. The research adopted a case study design and the tool used for data collected was a self-administering questionnaire. The collected data was analysed using descriptive and inferential analysis and findings of the research were presented on tables. The findings indicated that employee welfare, psychological contracts, work policies, in this order, have a significant impact on job satisfaction levels among management employees,a highly regulated work environment has no impact. The research recommended a review of the corporate human resource policies to provide guidelines on how to inspire, speak and listen to the employees. Further recommendation of the research was to break down company objectives into measurable targets for the management employees to be able to measure performance.

Diversification strategies is a key tool firms across the globe have applied for decades to achieve their business objectives. The grounding theories for this study were Resource-Based Theory and Modern Portfolio Theory. Only a few studies on diversifying and financial performance of telecommunication firms have been conducted in Kenya, which is the gap and the current study aimed to respond to the question: what is the effect of product diversification on business performance of telecommunication firms in Kenya? The study adopted a descriptive cross sectional research design. The populace of the study comprised of telecommunication service providers operating in Kenya. Secondary data was used in the study. Out of the 95 projected data points, 95 were collected. This translates to a 100% response rate. Diversification, company size, growth, and capital structure are all independent variables that affected the return on assets of telecommunication companies, according to the study. Diversification had a positive relationship with ROA. Linearity and normality tests were performed, suggesting that the data was normally distributed. The multicollinearity VIF test yielded values of 1.022 to 2.431, which are in the 1–10 range, indicating that multicollinearity does not exist. The researcher recommended that managers of the various players in the telecommunication industry to come up with better management alternatives that assist in proper and effective implementation of diversification strategies. Future research should look into broadening the scope of the study to include both internal and external factors that may have influenced the business community's performance levels.