Strategic Responses and Performance of International Hotels in Nairobi

Abstract

The objective of this study was to establish the strategic responses that aid performance in the international hotels in Nairobi. The aim was to answer the research question on what are the strategic responses to aid performance do international hotels operating in Nairobi adopt in order to succeed in the changing external environment? The Target population were 22 international hotels operating in Nairobi. The study specifically targeted those who are registered and licensed to transact hospitality business in Nairobi. The study used a census because of the relatively low population size of the targeted respondents. All the 22 respondents participated in the study, Out of the 22 respondents, 15 respondents completed and returned the questionnaires, translating to 68% response rate. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The analysed data was presented in form of frequency tables and pie charts. The study found out that strategic responses influence the performance of the international hotels in a dynamic environment. The strategic responses that were adopted by the international hotels were innovation strategies, expansion strategies, mergers and acquisition strategy, strategic alliances, cost and differentiation strategy and globalization strategy. The study established that the international hotels have been able to adopt the strategies to a relatively large extent in their operation, and thus enhanced their performance through reduction of the costs of operations, enhancement of profitability, competitiveness and sustainability of the international hotels. The study recommends that the international hotels should regularly scan their external environment in order to ensure the appropriate strategic responses are adopted in the organization. The study further recommended that future studies be done to assess how organizational factors influence the strategic responses of international hotels to external environmental factors which were not the concern of this study and the need to distinguish the characteristics of the firms such as total assets, market share and organizational structure in order to look at how different groups responds to the dynamic environmental factors and the strategic responses adopted in those firms.