Strategic responses to competition by Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited in the credit card issuing business
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Date
2011-10Author
Nandi, Valery FA
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
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From the study it is clear that BBK is facing a dynamic competitive environment in the
credit card issuing business. In view of this the focus of the study is to find out, if indeed
BBK is responding strategically to competition and if so, our interest is on how it has
done it. The main objectives of the study were to identify the nature of competition facing
Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited in its credit card issuing business, Establish how BBK
is responding to the competition therein and identify the challenges it is facing in
responding to competition in the credit card issuing business.
The research design applied in the study was a case study research design and data was
collected through a face to face interview of respondents in Barclaycard section of BBK,
with the use of an interview guide. This data was later analyzed through content analysis
and presented in form of narratives.
The results of the study indicated that BBK is facing competition in the credit card
issuing business mainly from KCB, Equity Bank, CBA, Co-operative Bank and CFCStanbic
Bank. The strategic responses unearthed from the study were market
segmentation, elimination and reduction of some tariffs, co-branding, core banking
platform systems change, streamlined customer service, insurance, customer redeemable
reward points, marketing and promotions. There were also challenges faced in adopting
strategic responses that included slow decision making due to bureaucracy and
prohibitive costs of adopting new technology and developments.
In conclusion it is evident that the strategic responses adopted by BBK in the credit card
issuing business are working but are yet to reach the optimum level. The bank needs to
adopt strategic responses more aggressively, fasten the decision making process through elimination of bureaucracy and willingly adopting new technology, regardless of the high
capital intensive cost. In essence BBK will be able to get a stronger competitive edge and
adopt timely strategic responses that will yield greater competitive results in its favour.
Citation
MBA ThesisSponsorhip
University of NairobiPublisher
School of Business, University of Nairobi