dc.description.abstract | Business strategy is concerned with how a firm competes in a given industry or market.
The Kenyan commercial banking industry guided by the banking Act that provides for
the licensing and regulation of commercial banks by the Central Bank of Kenya exhibits
competitiveness. Scholarly articles on the Kenyan banking industry portray a dynamic
environment for which this study sought to first determine the strategies adopted by
commercial banks to improve performance and to further establish whether the strategies
identified as adopted influence performance of the commercial banks in Kenya.
This census study that targeted 43 players licensed by the regulator in the Kenyan
banking industry finds from the 39 respondent institutions that the banks have to a large
extent applied the following strategies: rewarding frequent customers, creating
membership for regular customers, maintaining high quality of services, implementing of
customer feedback systems, targeting a specific geographic market, opening new
geographical branches, concentrating on main leading customers, developing
organizational technology leadership, developing different service quality levels that suit
the customer pocket, differentiating service features for different customer preferences
and developing organizational brand image.
Though the study reveals that the major challenges in strategy implementation for the
banks are lack of financial resources, poor advances in strategy and increased operation
costs. The attributes in banking business that are considered to be indicators to
competitive advantage include: business service leadership, cost effective service
delivery, how to communicate with customers, efficiency in service delivery and
innovation in service delivery. Other competitive strategies that were considered to
contribute to a firm’s competitive advantage but to a moderate extent are; technology
leadership and market share leadership. | en |