| dc.description.abstract | This study sought to examine the competitive business strategies and firm performance in
commercial banks in Kenya. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: (i) to
determine the competitive strategies adopted by commercial banks in Kenya; and (ii) to establish
the relationship between the competitive strategies used by commercial banks in Kenya and their
performance. A review of the relevant literature was undertaken in order to eliminate duplication
of what has been done and provide a clear understanding of existing knowledge base in the
problem area. The literature review is based on authoritative, recent, and original sources such as
journals, books, thesis and dissertations.
A descriptive study design was used to undertake the study. The population from which the study
was carried out was all the commercial banks registered and licensed to undertake commercial
banking business in Kenya, whose number stood at 45 as at December, 2008 (CBK, 2008) The
respondent from each of the commercial banks was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who is
charged with the responsibility of shaping the strategic direction of his/her respective
organization. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from the
respondents. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used as an aid in the analysis.
Data pertaining to the profile of respondents was analyzed by employing content analysis while
determination of the link between the competitive strategies and organizational performance was
undertaken using a regression analysis.
Findings of the study show that there is a direct correlation between the number of full time
employees and the number of branches owned by commercial banks. The findings also show that
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majority of the respondents had worked in their respective organizations for more than 5 years, a
period long enough to understand operations of their respective banks. The responses were thus
expected to be objective. The findings also show that the strategies adopted by commercial banks
in Kenya so as to cope with the competitive environment include vrigorous pursuit of cost
reductions; providing outstanding customer service; improving operational efficiency;
controlling quality of products/services; intense supervision of frontline personnel; developing
brand or company name identification; targeting a specific market niche or segment; and
providing specialty products/services. The findings also show a significant relationship between
the strategies adopted by commercial banks in Kenya and their respective performances with
respect to the following objective performance indicators: total revenue growth, total asset
growth, net income growth, market share growth and overall performance or growth. | en |
