Njogu, David Mbogo
Date:2018
Abstract:
The main objective of this study was to establish the influence of generic business strategies on the competitive advantage of Mobile operators in Kenya and specifically for Safaricom Limited. The study was guided by three research questions which sought to determine the effect of cost leadership strategy, product or service differentiation and the effects of focus strategy on building competitive advantage over other Mobile operators in Kenya.This study used a descriptive research design and the target population for this study was managers at Safaricom Limited. This population was chosen because the managers are the ones who perform strategy formulation and implementation. The target population was 40 strategic management managers from all the nine departments at Safaricom Kenya. The probability stratified sampling technique was used to pick respondents from the various departments. In this study, primary data was used. The analysis was conducted with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Tables and figures were used to present the data collected for ease of understanding and analysis. The inferential analysis entailed the Pearson’s Correlations analysis to measure strength and form of the relationship between variables. The findings of the study revealed a positive relationship between cost leadership and competitive advantage. Therefore, an increase in cost leadership leads to an increase in competitive advantage. The study also revealed a positive correlation between differentiation and competitive advantage. The regression equation illustrated that taking differentiation into account and other factors held constant competitive advantage increases and both variables were significant. On the relationship between focus strategy and competitive advantage, the relationship was found to be positive though not significant.The study concluded that Safaricom has been utilizing cost leadership strategy to gain competitive advantage. the company has done this by keeping overheads within the industry brackets. Secondly, Safaricom as a company uses differentiation strategy and this has been achieved by having a strong brand image and offering value added services in the products and service thus enhance competitive advantage over its competitors. The findings show that Safaricom has a focus on cost-sensitive customers using the cost-varying products and services; in addition, the firm has put a lot of focus on value added services to create good customer experience. The study recommended that new technology offered to customers should be one that helps the company reduce its costs of production. It is also necessary for the firm to charge similar or lower to the competition and this would help attract more users. Secondly, Safaricom should continue maintaining its brand image and this is possible through exceptional service delivery and offering of quality product and service. Lastly, there is a need to put more emphasis on the market segments and coming up with more innovation to ensure that the products offers by the company are the best in the industry. For further studies, there is a need to involve all staff in the different management levels to get the varied opinions. It is also necessary to undertake further studies by channeling the questions to the consumers. To establish the effect of the generic business strategies on Mobile operators, similar studies need to be done on the other mobile networks.
Description:
A Research Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)
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