Strategic Implications of Cloud Computing as a Competitive Advantage in the Banking Industry in Kenya
Abstract
Cloud computing is the offering of computing resources over the internet. Cloud
computing is the most popular rising computing model that benefit from massive
approval. Strategy is depicted as a set of beliefs on how a firm can achieve success. The
purpose of strategy is to provide directional cues to the organization that permit it to
achieve its objectives while responding to the opportunities and threats in the
environment. Competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to perform in one or
more ways that competitors will not and cannot match. The objective of the study was to
determine the strategic implication of cloud computing as a competitive advantage in the
banking industry in Kenya. This study adopted a cross-sectional survey. The target
population of the study was the top 10 best performing commercial banks operating in
Kenya. Both primary and secondary data were collected for the study. The completed
questionnaires were first edited and checked for completeness and consistency and
analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics using SPSS version 20.0. The study
established that cloud computing transformed the banking experience and customer
relationships by leveraging social and mobile media as. The study also established that
cloud computing can hold ground for the banks overall vision, mission and objectives in
achieving the overall competitive strategy. The study concluded that leveraging social
and mobile media has enabled the banking industry to improve on customer relationship.
The study also concluded that costs, lack of technical knowhow and security were major
challenge faced when trying to use cloud computing for strategic/competitive advantage.
It is also recommended that the banking industry should consider migrating its services to
in the future to a digital platform so as to improve customer relationships and other areas
of operation. It is recommended that further studies be done to establish in depth the
challenges facing adoption of cloud technology as a competitive advantage in banking
industry and a recommendation on how they can be addressed. The implications of this
study to the Kenyan banking sector is that it should be used as a guide to further pursue
interest in identifying the strategic implications of cloud computing in their banking
environments.
Citation
Master of Business AdministrationPublisher
University of Nairobi