| dc.description.abstract | The resource-based view (RBV) is an economic tool used to determine the strategic resources available to a firm. The existing competition due to the entry of new mobile telephone service providers, Orange, Econet and Yu, requires Safaricom limited to review its strategies. Kerama (2003) carried out a survey on the resource based view of competitiveness which was a survey of manufacturing firms listed in the NSE. Nderu, (2007) did a research on the use of resource based perspective as a competitive strategy at JKUAT. By the time of this study no study had ever focused on the resource based view at Safaricom limited. This is despite the fact that Safaricom limited is the main tax payer in the country owing to its strong resource base and its contribution to employment and hence economic growth.
The general objective of this study was to determine the extent of application resource based view strategy in Safaricom limited. This was a case study since the unit of analysis was one organisation. This was a case study aimed at getting detailed information regarding the resource based view strategy in Safaricom limited. The researcher used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using selfadministered interview guides while secondary data was collected by use of desk search techniques from published reports and other documents. Secondary data included the companies' publications, journals, periodicals and information obtained from the internet.
The interview guides had open-ended questions. The open-ended questions enabled the researcher to collect qualitative data. This was used in order to gain a better understanding and possibly enable a better and more insightful interpretation of the results from the study. The interviewees of this study were the senior staff, who included top, middle and lower level managers across all departments working at Safaricom limited. This study targeted to interview 40 interviewees. A content analysis and descriptive analysis were employed. The data was then presented in a continuous prose as a qualitative report on the resource based view strategy in Safaricom limited.
This study concludes that Safaricom limited enjoys competitive advantage in the mobile phone industry due to its strategic approach towards tne competitive marKet 'by research and development/innovation. The study also concludes that the RBV contributes to advantages such as enhancing staff potential through involvement in strategic decision making, adopting people focused mechanisms which deliver the strategy including employee selection and communication. The study concludes that technological resources and human resources are the most important strategic resources in the resource based view strategy in Safaricom limited. | en_US |
