Effect of Market Penetration Strategy on Financial Performance of Tobacco Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of market penetration strategy on the financial performance of tobacco manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study was informed by resource-based theory and adopted an ex post facto research design. The target population was tobacco manufacturing firms with 350 company employees from British American Tobacco Kenya Ltd and Mastermind Tobacco Kenya Limited being the unit of analysis. The sample size was 187 and stratified random sampling technique was used. This study used closed ended questionnaires as a data collection technique. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to test the reliability of research tools with Cronbach alpha being above 0.7 for all variables. The results of this study were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive analysis involved frequencies distribution, percentages, means and standard deviations. The inferential analysis involved Pearson's correlation and the multiple regression analysis. The study revealed that market penetration strategy had a positive and significant effect on financial performance (β1= .481, t= 6.506 and p= .000