Project Risk Management Practices and Organisational Performance in Manufacturing Firms: Evidence from SOSOMA Industries, Rwanda

Annuarithe Mutesi and Richard Kabanda
University of Kigali, Rwanda
Email: mutesiannuarithe@gmail.com

Abstract: Manufacturing firms increasingly deliver change through projects executed under operational, financial, technical, regulatory, supply-chain, and market-related risk. This study examined the effect of stage-based project risk management (PRM) practices — planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation — on the organisational performance of SOSOMA Industries, a manufacturing and agro-processing firm in Rwanda. Anchored on Contingency Theory, Systems Theory, the Resource-Based View, and the PMBOK framework, it adopted a quantitative explanatory design. A census of 67 staff in project-execution and risk-management functions was surveyed using a structured questionnaire and documentary review, achieving a 100% response rate. Data were analysed in SPSS using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. All four PRM stages correlated positively and significantly with organisational performance (p < .01), and the model explained 87.4% of the variance (R² = .874). Monitoring exerted the strongest effect (β = .414), followed by planning (β = .297) and implementation (β = .193); evaluation was positive but non-significant (β = .120). Performance gains are driven primarily by continuous monitoring and upfront planning, whereas evaluation appears to operate as an indirect, learning-oriented mechanism. Firms under similar constraints should institutionalise integrated, lifecycle-based risk governance, prioritising real-time monitoring, early-warning systems, and accountability for planned responses.