From Information Sharing to Knowledge Flow: Digital Transformation as a Moderator of Communication Strategies in Kenya’s Public Benefit Organizations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47672/jsm.3022Abstract
Purpose: Kenya’s Public Benefit Organizations (PBOs) run on information. They must account to donors and regulators, coordinate programmes spread across counties, and hold on to what they learn when staff and funding move on. Many struggle to do so: in 2024/2025, more than 4,779 PBOs faced deregistration for non-compliance, and only 61% of active organizations filed annual returns. This study examined whether communication strategies and digital transformation, treated as channels through which organizational information and knowledge flow, explain PBO performance.
Methodology: The study was anchored on Dynamic Capabilities Theory, with the knowledge-based view of the firm as a supporting lens. A pragmatic, mixed-methods cross-sectional survey targeted a stratified random sample of 368 of the 4,750 PBOs registered and compliant with PBORA, with one respondent per PBO, and 261 returned usable questionnaires (70.9%). Ordinal logistic regression, including a moderation model with an interaction term, was applied to the quantitative data, and open-ended questionnaire responses were analysed thematically.
Findings: On their own, communication strategies did not have a significant influence on performance (β = −0.046, p = .818). Respondents explained why. Channels were fragmented, feedback loops were weak and staff resisted new practices, so information moved without becoming shared knowledge. Digital transformation told a different story. It had a significant positive influence on performance (β = 0.495, p = .017) and strengthened the link between communication and performance (interaction β = 0.111, p = .036), working as the infrastructure that captures, circulates and preserves what organizations know.
Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: PBO leaders need to treat communication as a knowledge process, backed by digital feedback channels, shared repositories and data-driven reporting. For regulators, the priorities are digital reporting standards, sound data governance and digital skills across the sector. Few studies have examined nonprofit communication and digital transformation in Africa through an information and knowledge management lens. This one does, and its evidence points to a simple but consequential conclusion: communication is associated with performance mainly when it is digitally enabled and built into how the organization works.
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