Empirical Evaluation of AfCFTA Operationalization and Export Performance Mechanics in Kenya's Manufacturing Sector: Quantitative Survey and Psychometric Reliability Analysis

This project executed the quantitative data processing, psychometric validation, and descriptive statistical synthesis for Chapter 4 of an empirical study investigating the operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and its impact on Kenya’s manufacturing export sector. Analyzing primary survey data across four core dimensions—Tariff Liberalization (TL), Trade Facilitation Reforms (TFR), Export Diversification (ED), and Institutional Frameworks (IF)—against Manufacturing Export Performance (EP), the study processed $N = 389$ raw questionnaire submissions using Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics (version 26). Following rigorous data cleaning to resolve branching logic anomalies, item formatting inconsistencies, and multiple-response errors, a randomized subsample ($n = 33$) was reserved exclusively for pre-administration pilot reliability testing, leaving a main analytical sample of $N = 356$ manufacturing export representatives and institutional stakeholders.Psychometric evaluation of the five multi-item constructs (comprising 50 total 5-point Likert scale items) demonstrated exceptional internal consistency during pilot pre-testing. Cronbach’s alpha ($\alpha$) coefficients substantially exceeded the standard $0.70$ threshold across all domains: Tariff Liberalization ($\alpha = 0.971$), Export Diversification ($\alpha = 0.963$), Trade Facilitation Reforms ($\alpha = 0.957$), Institutional Frameworks ($\alpha = 0.954$), and Manufacturing Export Performance ($\alpha = 0.930$). Corrected item-total correlations across all 50 indicators comfortably surpassed the $0.30$ baseline (ranging from $0.580$ to $0.930$), confirming high construct validity prior to full-scale deployment. Demographic profiling of the main analytical sample ($N = 356$) revealed a distribution predominantly representing mature, large-scale commercial entities: 44.9% ($n = 160$) were large enterprises ($\ge 250$ employees), 36.5% ($n = 130$) were medium firms, and 18.5% ($n = 66$) were small enterprises. Export firm representatives constituted 98.6% ($n = 351$) of respondents, highlighting an institutional key informant shortfall ($n = 4$ government respondents vs. 30 targeted). Furthermore, 68.8% of respondents possessed 2 to 10 years of personal export trade experience, with 49.7% ($n = 177$) designating East Africa as their primary export destination. Baseline descriptive indicators across the five constructs demonstrated narrow item mean clustering between $2.6$ and $3.4$, capturing a cautious, moderately favorable perception among Kenyan manufacturers regarding initial AfCFTA implementation benefits.