The Impact of the East African Community Integration on Small & Medium Enterprises. Case of Kenya

The viability of small and medium enterprises (SME's) is vital to economic development and growth in the East African Community Region. An important factor in all this is the growth of these enterprises and how they can effectively respond to the environmental (exogenous) factors brought about by the regions' integration into a regional block. This study is motivated by the research objective which is to examine the nature of regional integration and the experiences by SME's in the East African Community states and considers research questions in their relation to the types of strategies and the external factors influencing the firm's strategies as well as changes in their structure. The objectives SME's pursue and the extent to which their objectives are achieved is therefore considered. These exogenous variables include access to finance, the legal/regulatory environment and technology, business infrastructure and Labour Mobility. All these are expected to impact on SME's upon operationalisation of regional integration mechanisms.