Impact of External Customers’ Satisfaction on Organizational Sustainability. A Case Study of United States International University-Africa

A Research Project Report submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Masters in Business AdministrationThe purpose of this study was to investigate how the level of satisfaction of an organization’s external consumers impacts the organization’s sustainability, taking USIU-Africa’s as a point in case. The study sought to answer the following: Factors that influence Kenyan USIU students to study at the institution as opposed to other local universities; Factors that influence Kenyan USIU students to continue pursuing their education at the university and; mechanisms USIU can put in place to improve customer satisfaction. This study adopted a descriptive research survey design. It found answers to questions by analyzing specific variable relationships which in this case were related to the impact of satisfaction of external customers on an organization’s sustainability. The population for this study consisted of Kenyan Masters and Undergraduate students at USIU who total to 5,439 students. The sampling frame comprised of male and female Kenyan USIU Undergraduate and Master’s students. The list was obtained from USIU’s Registrar’s Office with the latest figures dated 12th December-15. As for the sample size, the study used a sample population of 60 of the 5,439 Kenyan USIU students. The study adopted a stratified sampling technique whereby the strata consisted of 47 Kenyan Undergraduates and 13 Master’s students. This study adopted a stratified sampling technique and simple random sampling was then used to pick respondents from each strata. The study entailed use of questionnaires to collect primary data and were useful in obtaining objective data because the participants were not manipulated in any way by the researcher in filling a questionnaire. Quantitative data obtained from the questionnaires were coded and entered in the computer using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) program then analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies and presented in tables and figures. This study would be beneficial to the USIU management since, it offers insight into the competitive advantage that the institution has over other local and international Universities and potentially contribute to USIU’s strategy in terms of positioning itself as the University of choice to its targeted students. This study would also help USIU’s prospective students to identify the fundamentals of service delivery in relation to Higher Education as evidenced by feedback from current students at the institution. This study would also be of significant value to researchers and members of the academic fraternity to understand students’ preferences in higher learnin