Strategic Responses and Organizational Performance of Public Universities in Nairobi County, Kenya

— Strategic responses enable organizations to maximize on their core competencies to be able to provide value adding goods and services. Organizations that embrace strategic responses have a better performance compared to those that fail to implement strategic responses. Public universities in Kenya have been experiencing rapidly changing environmental circumstances and these institutions need to change their tactics to increase their performance in the competitive environment. The main objective of this study was to establish the relationship between strategic responses and organizational performance of public universities in Kenya. The specific objectives of this study was; to establish the influence of technology adoption on organizational performance of public universities in Kenya; to determine the influence of market expansion on organizational performance of public universities in Kenya; to assess the influence of cost cutting strategies on organizational performance of public universities in Kenya; and to establish the moderating effect of organizational culture on the relationship between strategic responses and organizational performance of public universities in Kenya. The study employed a descriptive design. The study target population was 150 staff members from selected public universities in Nairobi County that were; KU, UoN and TUK. The sampling frame was university administrators, lecturers, non-teaching staff, and students in these chartered public universities in Kenya. The sample size for the study was 30 respondents picked randomly. Validity of the questionnaire was achieved through expert opinion while reliability was measured using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient value of above 0.7. The research data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of the statistical package for social sciences. Data was presented in form of tables, charts and graphs. The findings from the study was of value to the management and staff of public universities in Kenya to enable them adopt the best strategies, the government in policy formulation, and academicians and researchers may find the research useful as it will be a point of reference and add to the existing body of knowledge. The study recommended that further studies should be undertaken to incorporate other strategic responses such as product innovation, downsizing and divesting in order to find out their impact on performance of public universities. The study also provided an area for further study in that, a comparative study could be done on other strategic response measures that may affect public universities' performance and Private universities in Kenya.