Background: Small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (manufacturing SMEs) can facilitate economic growth and development by creating employment and spurring economic activities at low levels of the economy. The performance of SMEs in Kenya has, however, been poor, despite their significance. This poor performance is attributed to the high costs of logistics operations in the country. Manufacturing SMEs can, however, improve the performance of their logistics operations by adopting appropriate logistics outsourcing strategies. Aim: The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of logistics outsourcing among manufacturing SMEs in Nairobi. Setting: Manufacturing SMEs in Nairobi operate from the industrial zones of the Nairobi City County. The enterprises’ logistics operations are characterised by long cycle times, high transportation costs and limited resources. The high operational costs experienced by the SMEs threaten their survival, and they are therefore required, among other things, to manage their logistics more efficiently to improve overall performance. Method: A quantitative research design was used in this study. Data were collected from 163 manufacturing SMEs using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and (a one-way analysis of variance) ANOVA were used to analyse the data. Results: Most (94%) of the manufacturing SMEs opted to outsource their logistics operations, although the extent of outsourcing was limited (1% – 50% of logistics operations were outsourced). Logistics outsourcing by the SMEs is intended to reduce logistics costs and supplement the limited in-house capabilities. In addition, there were significant differences in the extent of outsourcing of operational, information processing and value-added categories of logistics activities. Conclusion: The results motivate SME owners and managers to acquire logistics resources and capabilities that are lacking in-house through logistics outsourcing to achieve the required efficiencies. Although the majority of SMEs have embraced logistics outsourcing, the low extent of its usage within the enterprises might have limited the ability to achieve high efficiencies.

中文翻译：

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内罗毕中小型制造企业之间的物流外包程度

背景：中小型制造企业（制造业中的中小企业）可以通过创造就业机会和刺激经济低水平的经济活动来促进经济增长和发展。然而，尽管中小企业意义重大，但肯尼亚的业绩却很差。表现不佳的原因是该国的物流业务成本高昂。但是，制造业中小企业可以通过采用适当的物流外包策略来提高其物流业务的绩效。目的：本研究的目的是确定内罗毕制造业中小型企业的物流外包程度。设置：内罗毕的制造业中小企业在内罗毕市县的工业区运营。企业物流业务的特点是周期时间长，高昂的运输成本和有限的资源。中小企业承受的高额运营成本威胁着他们的生存，因此，除其他外，它们需要更有效地管理其物流以提高整体绩效。方法：本研究采用定量研究设计。使用结构化问卷从163个制造业中小型企业中收集数据。描述性统计和方差分析（单向分析）用于分析数据。结果：尽管外包程度有限（1％– 50％的物流业务已外包），但大多数（94％）制造业中小企业选择外包其物流业务。中小型企业的物流外包旨在降低物流成本并补充有限的内部能力。此外，物流活动的业务，信息处理和增值类别的外包程度存在显着差异。结论：结果激励中小企业所有者和经理通过物流外包获得内部缺乏的物流资源和能力，以达到所需的效率。尽管大多数中小型企业都接受了物流外包，但在企业内部使用的程度较低，可能会限制其实现高效率的能力。