Effect of Competitive Strategies Adopted by Ride Hailing Companies in Nairobi, Kenya to Sustain Competitive Advantage in the Taxi Industry
Abstract
This project’s main aim is to identify the competitive strategies ride-hailing companies
employ in Nairobi and their effect on the competitive advantage attained within the ridehailing
sector of the taxi industry. The enhanced approaches availed through
technological advancements have allowed the improving of efficiency and effectiveness
in service providing industries. One such industry is the taxi industry where ride hailing
applications have been adopted to differentiate the product and improve efficiency in the
sector. The research employed the survey design, which enabled 60 respondents across
three ride hailing service providers in Nairobi, Kenya (UBER, Taxify and Little Cab) to
participate in the study. The respondents were contractors/driving partners affiliated with
the three ride hailing companies listed previously. The research found that the companies
mainly applied three competitive strategies; Product Differentiation, Cost leadership and
Focus strategies each with a varying degree of influence on the competitive advantage
attained. The study concluded that focus strategies such as availability of service across
various platforms, certainty and accuracy in pricing and billing and communication and
feedback between the companies their contractors and clients had a stronger impact in
increasing competitive advantage gained. Cost leadership and product differentiation
scored lower influence on competitive advantage due to the similarity in the product
offering across the three companies. The study recommends that ride hailing companies
actively train their contractors and staff to improve customer service and also, improve
communication channels to allow for creative and innovative ideas from the contractors
trickle back to the company.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/Collections
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