The Invisible Mobile Banking:A Survey Of Organizational Characteristics,and Market Segmentation Practices On Performance By Mobile Banking Firms In Kenya

Contemporary marketing strategy development includes concepts such as targeting,segmenting and positioning(STP of marketing).A firm's relative position within a given industry determines whether a firm's profitability is above or below the industry average.The financial industry in Kenya has undergone a lot of fundamental changes in the recent past that are solely aimed at strengthening and revamping it.The objective of this study was to determine the effect of organizational characteristics,and market segmentation practices on performance by the Invisible mobile banking firms in Kenya.The study applied descriptive research design.The target population was the five Invisible mobile banking firms in Kenya.Marketing and strategic departments of mobile banking firms were the target respondents.The researcher used questionnaires with closed and open ended questions.Descriptive statistics was used in the analysis of quantitative data while qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis.The study established that the invisible mobile banking industry in Kenya uses consumer market segmentation practices within the industry,hence giving a positive impact on performance.More than 92% of the respondents agreed that segmentation improved their firm's competitive position in the industry.The study revealed that organizational characteristics have a bearing on a firm's performance.The structure,and ages of the firms were identified as the organizational characteristics that majorly affect firm performance.Another aspect was on organizational structure which also affects firm performance.According to four firms their external environment,organizations people,organizations behavior as well as individual behavior affects firm performance.The study also identified that both financial and non-financial performance measurement practices are used by all the invisible mobile banking firms in the country.The main challenges identified in this study were that the respondents were not willing to fill the survey and so most of them opted to delegate this to their juniors in the office,there was also another issue of employees not being comfortable stating the companies practices to an outsider this was mitigated by having an introduction letter from the university.It is worth noting that as the environment responds to the strategy implementation,the formulation should also be under constant review so as to accommodate effects of the interaction between the environment and the organization.The study further concluded that there have been improvements in the invisible mobile banking industry with regards to improved efficiency,provision and organization of insight into new product/market opportunities,increased cross selling opportunities for the organizations.