Partner Related Motives and Strategic Alliance Formation: Evidence from Small and Medium Enterprises in Kenya

This study investigates the effect of partner-related motives on firm performance, and the study targeted manufacturing SMEs based in Kenya. The partner-related motives were operationalized as the social factors of reputation-based motives, historical-based motives, and institutional-based motives, while firm performance is operationalized as sales growth and net profit. The target population for the study consisted of 74 SMEs based in Nairobi City County with existing strategic alliances. The study adopted descriptive and explanatory research designs and collected data from company CEOs or senior managers. The survey data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The survey findings showed that partner-related motives have been adopted and practiced by manufacturing SMEs to a high extent (M=3.68; S.D.=0.83). The study findings indicate that partner related motives have a significant effect on performance of manufacturing SMEs (Adj R2=0.525, β=0.444, p