Competitive Strategies Adopted to Drive Performance by Firms in the Telecommunications Industry in Kenya
Abstract
Competition is the main driving force leading managers to search for areas of
competitive advantage that leads to greater financial success. For companies to
survive in the market from challenges like, volatile customer demands, technological
changes and globalization they need to continuously assess the environment, trace the
root of competition and adopt strategies that earned them a competitive advantage
over the rivals. This study sought to determine the competitive strategies adopted to
drive performance by firms in the telecommunication industry in Kenya. The data was
collected from the nine firms in Kenya namely Safaricom Ltd, Airtel Kenya, Telkom
Kenya, Jamii Telkom, Access Kenya, Liquid Telkom, Internet Solution, MTN
Business and Wananchi Group. The respondents were one top manager from each of
the firms using non-probability sampling technique. Data was collected using
questionnaires and analyzed through descriptive statistics on quantitative data and
content analysis on qualitative data. This study established the root of competition and
how strategies like cost leadership; differentiation strategy and focus strategy are used
to gain competitive advantage. The study concludes that the firms in the
telecommunication sector adopt various strategies including: differentiation, cost
leadership and focus so as to acquire and maintain sustainable competitive advantage.
The study further concludes that the cost strategy was visible in the organizations and
they kept on changing this strategy when it was no longer successful. The
organizations need to continue innovating products which would compete with other
companies’ products and at the same time they should do aggressive marketing in
order to change the perception of customers regarding the pricing of their products.
The study recommends that although the organizations are market leaders they should
consider other competitors prices as the customers are conscious about the lowest
rates they are offered and not necessarily the value. These would ensure that the
organization maintains their market share which is under threat from other
competitors.
Publisher
University of Nairobi