Omar Osman^1,, Stephen M.A. Muathe¹

The research sought to investigate the impacts of market entry approaches on the Kenya Banks’ performance with Equity Bank being the used case study. In particular, the study sought to analyse the effect of licensing strategy and partnership strategy on Kenya Banks’ performance. The preferred research design for the study was descriptive deign on a population of 394 management staff of Equity bank branches operating in Nairobi County. A sample of 119 respondents was picked via stratified sampling method. The study used a questionnaire to collect the required primary data while secondary data was collected from published financial statements using data collection sheet. Descriptive statistics including mean scores, standard deviations and frequencies were utilized in analyzing research data. Further, regression analysis helped establish the effect of market entry strategies on performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The results show that the effect of licensing and partnership on performance of commercial banks in Kenya was statistically significant. This study concludes that Kenya commercial banks that seek to enter new market in the region must adopt market entry strategies that have the highest effect on the performance. The study recommended that management of any organisation or firm that seeks to enter into new market must carefully analyse the strategies that will maximize output. The choice of market entry strategy depends on a number of factors that must be considered.

market entry strategies, performance, commercial banks, Kenya