Effect of technology adoption on organizational performance of dairy societies in Uasin-gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Dairy societies in Kenya, like many Africa countries is carried out by small-scale dairy farmers located in rural areas, often with low levels of literacy and very few technological skills. For dairy cooperatives to survive they have to streamline their operations and improve their management processes if they want to have a positive balance sheet and some surplus money to pay dividends to their members, therefore, the study assessed the effect of information communication and technology adoption on performance of dairy societies in Uasin Gishu County. The study specifically determined the effect of financial information system technologies adoption on organization performance of dairy societies, established the effect of Information communication technologies adoption on organization performance of dairy societies, ascertained the effect of human resource information system on organization performance of dairy societies and determined the effect of Product Processing technologies on organization performance of dairy societies. The study was informed by Diffusion of Innovation theory (DOI) and Theory of Constraints (TOC). The study adopted the explanatory research design which shows the causal effect of technology adoption and organization performance. A census of all the dairy cooperative societies in Uasin Gishu County was done, where there are a total of 20 dairy societies. The primary data for the study was obtained using questionnaires. Pretest on two dairy societies was done to test for reliability. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach Alpha coefficient. Quantitative data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques which are frequencies, means, and standard deviation. Inferential statistics such as Pearson moment correlations was used to establish the effects on the variables. Multiple regression was used to establish the cause effect of the variables. The findings of the study indicated that financial information system technologies adoption, information communication technology adoption and Product Processing technologies adoption had significant and positive effect on performance of dairy societies. The results showed that all the four predictors explained 65.7% of organizational performance. However, the study revealed that human resource information system had no significant effect on performance of dairy societies. The study concludes that financial information system technologies adoption, information communication technology adoption and Product Processing technologies adoption are significantly related to organizational performance of dairy societies. The study recommends that policies on financial information system technologies, Human Resources information system, ICT and product processing technologies should be adopted to boost organizational performance and enable them to have a competitive edge.