Strategies Adopted For Competitive Advantage By Importation And Marketing Oil Firms In Kenya
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Date
2016Author
Musau, Catherine C
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
A competitive strategy aims at gaining and maintaining competitive advantage over
business rivals. For a firm to formulate appropriate strategies that will enable it respond
effectively to environmental competitive pressures, it is prudent that the firm understands
the underlying sources of the competitive pressure in its industry. The purpose of this
study was to determine the strategies adopted by oil marketing firms in Kenya to
remain competitive. The study employed a descriptive survey research design.
The population of this study was the oil-marketing companies in Kenya. A questionnaire
was used to collect data from 35 CEOs, business development managers and the marketing
managers of oil arketing firms. The data obtained from the respondents was analyzed
through descriptive data analyzing techniques by employing a social science software
program. The study found that majority (54%) of the respondents indicated that there
was a high practice of proper capacity utilization; storage facilities, blending and filling
plants; 71% indicated that there was a high strategic location of storage, filling and
loading facilities. A significant number (84%) indicated that there was consistent product
availability. A ignificant number (79%) of respondents also indicated that there was high use
of high equipment and facility reliability. A significant number (76%) indicated that their
oil firms used segmented markets as a method of competitive advantage.
A significant number (75%) of the participants indicated that there was high investment
in local network expansion by increasing number of stations. The study concluded
that the strategies adopted by the oil firms included the cost leadership strategy,
differentiation strategy, focus strategy and market expansion strategy. The researcher also
concluded that cost leadership and focus strategies were the most widely used
competitive strategies. The researcher also concluded that the cost leadership strategy,
differentiation strategy and focus strategy were effective in enhancing the competitiveness
of the oil firms. The researcher recommended that the firms should focus on adopting
cost leadership strategies to ensure that that their profit margin increases
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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