Influence of Diversification Innovation on Revenue Streams Sources of Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

In spite of rapid increase of number of public universities in Kenya from 5 to 31 in the last two decades, in the last three years the number of qualifying fresh undergraduate students has significantly decreased-yet traditional this is what has been the cash cow for these institutions. These public universities have been relying on capitation fund for government placement admissions which has been largely augmented with own source revenue from self-sponsored programmes or privately placed admissions. With the slinking numbers of qualifying admissible students many public universities are reporting alarming revenue shortfalls and operational deficits. This precarious scenario has necessitated need for strategic innovations on own source revenue streams. The study therefore evaluated the influence of strategic innovations on revenue streams sources of public universities in Kenya. It was assessed the influence of technological innovation, and diversification innovation on revenue streams sources of selected public universities. It was based on descriptive research design using a cross-sectional survey with quantitative and qualitative data collected using questionnaires. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A multiple linear regression model was used to present the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. From the analysis the conclusion was that there is a positive relationship between the independent variables technology innovation and diversification innovation on the dependent variable revenue stream sources in the selected public universities in Kenya (p <0.05). The researcher recommends that there is the need for university management to adopt strategic innovations in order to achieve new revenue stream sources of their institutions and their long time survival.