Abstract
This study reviews and synthesizes existing literature on the effect of supply chain contract governance on organizational performance, especially in the public universities in Kenya. The evaluation was prompted by the growing importance of contractual governance in enhancing procurement efficiency, supplier collaboration, accountability, and overall organizational effectiveness and the absence of synthesized evidence in Kenya's higher education sector. The research adopted a systematic narrative literature review methodology, using peer-reviewed journal articles, books, conference proceedings, theses, and policy documents published between 2022 and 2026. The references were retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Emerald Insight, Springer Link, Taylor & Francis Online, Wiley Online Library, JSTOR, and Google Scholar. We proceeded with a deductive thematic content analysis, based on four established dimensions of contractual governance: enforcement of contracts, monitoring of contracts, mechanisms for dispute resolution, and sharing of information. The results reveal that good contractual governance has a positive association with procurement performance, operational effectiveness, supplier relationships, organizational resilience, and accountability. However, considerable differences can be observed in the governance structures, theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and performance indicators in the reviewed studies. The analysis also reveals that existing studies have focused mainly on sectors such as manufacturing, construction, agro-processing, county administrations, and other public entities, while public universities in Kenya have been largely ignored. Major deficiencies still exist in context, concept, theory, method, and empirics. The analysis contributes to the literature by identifying these gaps and laying the foundation for future empirical work on contractual governance and organizational effectiveness in Kenyan public universities.