E - Businesses promise new avenues for creation of wealth. According to Amit and Zott ( 2001), this value creation potential arises from the combination and exchange of resources. While research on value creation in e-businesses has been carried out elsewhere, the author is not aware of such research on Kenya e-businesses. Therefore, the study sought to examine sources of value creation for Kenyan e-businesses based on Amit and Zott's (2001) model. Amit and Zott claim that organizations can create value in e-businesses by leveraging on complementarities, novelty, efficiency and lock-in. The research was guided by two questions. What are the sources of value creation for Kenyan e-businesses? Secondly, are the measures of value creation formulated by Amit and Zott, relevant to Kenya?
The research methodology adopted was a case study. This is a research strategy that attempts to examine contemporary phenomenon in real life contexts. Listed companies with e-businesses implementations from the Nairobi Stock Exchange ( NSE) formed the population. Companies examined include; Kenya Airways, TPS Serena and Nation Media Group chosen due to the richness of their e-business implementations. Data was collected from company annual reports, investor communities questionnaires, organization websites and company management interviews. Two techniques were used for data analysis;the within case analysis technique which involved generating detailed case study write-ups based on questionnaires. The cross case analysis technique involved looking at the data in many divergent ways.
The study findings showed that complementaries, lock-in, novelty and efficiency as identified by Amit and Zott (2001) were sources of value creation for all the three Kenyans companies above.However, there were diffeences in the way the companies leveraged on these sources. Kenya Airways leveraged on efficiency, TPS Serena on complementaries, Nation Media Group leveraged on all the four sources; complementarities, novelty, effeciency and lock-in. The study also revealed thatAmit and Zott's (2001) model was relevant in the Kenyan context. The Kenyan companies studied created value in their businesses implementations by focussing on the differnt sources of value creation in their e-business. Kenya Airways in its e-businessdeployment was driven by the need to make its processes more efficient. Similarly, TPS Serena was driven by complementarities. Nation Media Group was the only company to have focissed on all sources of value creation complementarities, novelty, efficiency and lock-in in its e-businesse implementations.
The study findings revealed that the three Kenyan companies studied created value by leveraging on complementarities, efficiency, novelty and lock-in their business implementations. Kenyan companies should therefore make use of Amit and Zott's (2001) model in the designand implementation of e-businesses. The findings also showed that the importance of a source was determined by the industry a company operated in. I t is therefore neccessary for Kenyan companies to be informed of the critical value creation sources in their industries to adequately leverage on them.
However, further research is needed to determine whether the difference in leverage of the value creation sources across industries is due to characteristics specific to the industries or due to chance. A research that includes value creation practices of more Kenyan e-businesses across different time frames and stages of maturity is therefore encouraged.