Influence of Technological Environment on Performance of Gated Community Housing Projects in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The principal objective of the study reported in this article was to
empirically assess the influence of technological environment on
performance of gated community housing projects in Nairobi County,
Kenya. The study population comprised of all active gated community
housing projects initiated in 2009 – 2014. A total of 572 respondents were
drawn from 143 sampled gated community housing projects from the
seventeen sub-counties of Nairobi County (four members were drawn from
each sampled gated community project – client, consultant, contractor, and
the gated community facility manager) using census, stratified, simple
random, and purposive sampling techniques. A standardized open ended
interview guide and a questionnaire with both open and closed-ended items
with Likert-type interval scale anchored on a five point scale were used to
collect data. Descriptive statistics show that respondents agreed that to a very
great extent their projects used locally made plant and equipment (M=4.80,
SD=0.40), to a great extent skills were available for operation of the plant
and equipment (M=4.04, SD=0.47), to a great extent team members with
necessary skills to operate and use the plant equipment were available
(M=4.0, SD=0.43), to a very great extent use of information and
communication technology (ICT) was satisfactory (M=4.49, SD=0.71), to a
very great extent computer aided drafting (CAD) was used (M=4.62,
SD=0.71), to a very great extend 3D visual illustrations - Building
Information Modelling, was used (M=4.65, SD=0.48), and to a very great 

extent electronic mails and communication was used (M=4.86, SD=0.34.
Results from inferential statistics show that r is equal to 0.559, indicating that
technological environment has a moderately strong influence on performance
in gated community housing projects. The value of r squared is 0.312,
indicating that technological environment explains 31.2% of the variation in
the performance in gated community housing projects in Nairobi County,
Kenya. The β coefficient is 0.327, indicating that technology environment
had statistically significant influence on the performance of gated
community housing projects (β=0.327, t= 4.758, p=0.000<0.05). Considering
the p value, it can be noted that the p value for technological environment
(p=0.000) is statistically significant. The β value imply that one unit change
in performance in gated community housing project is associated with 32.7%
changes in technological environment.