Operations Responsiveness and Competitive Advantage of Fast-moving Consumer Goods Manufacturers in Nairobi County

Abstract

The study set to find how operations responsiveness and competitive advantage interacts among fast-moving consumer goods manufacturers in industrial area, Nairobi, Kenya. Dynamic capability, resource dependence and open systems theory supported this study. The study purposed to ascertain the contribution of operations responsiveness on competitiveness of fast-moving consumer goods manufacturers within the study area making them the units of analysis. Choice of study area was made because of proximity to the researcher, and its richness in information. The concept of responsiveness was found to be critical to manufacturing firms of fast-moving consumer products. Interest for study was also elicited by changing operating environment that requires firms to have production systems that accommodates dynamic environments. A review of previous studies showed a concentration on supply chain and agility aspect of responsiveness on competitive advantage, while related studies were all done outside Kenya giving rise to contextual and conceptual gap, justifying the current research. The study targeted 70 FMCGM firms, informed by the data base of KAM, 68 responses were obtained giving a 97% response rate. Response was obtained from operations, marketing managers or their equivalents to provide answers to semi-structured questionnaire used to gather primary data. The study concentrated on three facets of operations responsiveness: operations system responsiveness, logistics process responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness while investigating the impact of operations responsiveness on competitive position of focal firms. Conclusion were based on descriptive survey and inferential analysis. Most firms exhibited adoption of responsive practices. The research found a strong link between the study variables. The three facets of responsiveness were found to positively and significantly improve the competitive position of the firms involved in this study. According to the study supplier network responsiveness is the foundation of responsiveness while operations responsiveness was found to drive responsiveness through reliability and quality dependability. Logistics was found to be crucial in maintaining organizational presence in the market. However, to be responsive, product development time should be improved, and a robust and standardized production system that requires minimal reconfiguration in-between production runs adopted. A logistic system that accommodates routine and non-routine customer requests. The study relied on primary data collected from respondents employed by focal firms giving rise to response bias. Future studies are recommended to consider secondary and primary data. As well as exploratory and longitudinal design to open future research to more responses to eliminate the potential bias.