Strategies adopted by real estate firms in Kenya to gain competitive advantage
Abstract
Strategy of an organization is the roadmap towards attainment of its long term goals and
objectives. Competitive strategies consist of all those moves and approaches that a firm has and
is taking to attract buyers, withstand competitive pressure and improve its market position.
Competitive strategies are employed by firms within a particular Industry. In today’s hypercompetitive environment, business organizations are constantly required to review their
strategies. According to Heywood (2008), organization’s competitiveness has been a feature in
general and strategic management literature as an explanation for organization success. This
study is about strategies adopted by real estate firms in Kenya to gain competitive advantage. It
was guided by the following objectives: (i) To establish the challenges of competition faced by
real estate firms in Kenya (ii) To determine the strategies adopted in Kenya to gain competitive
advantage. A review of the relevant literature was done in order to provide a clear understanding
of existing knowledge base in problem area. The literature review is based on authoritative,
recent and original sources such as journals, books, thesis and dissertations. The research
adopted the survey design which was most appropriate in attaining the objectives of the study.
The sample of the study comprised of 38 real estate firms operating in Nairobi. Respondents
were subjected to the study through a semi-structured questionnaire which collected primary
data. Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) was used as an aid in the analysis. The
study found out that the real estate firms had adopted various sources of competitive advantages
which include; Generic competitive strategies, product-matrix, growth matrix, pricing strategy
and cost leadership .The findings also showed a positive influence of the sources of competitive
advantage adopted by real estate firms in Kenya to gain competitive advantage with respect to
profitability, sales growth, customer satisfaction, market share, employees competencies and
innovations to products and services. Recommendations have been made for managerial policy,
theory and practice for the real estate firms. The limitations of the study were that it focused on
one sector i.e. real estate and the conclusions drawn may not be generalized to other sectors.
Also, some of the respondents were cautious about giving away too much information on their
sources of competitive advantage. Suggestions for further research include replication of the
study on sources of competitive advantage and their influence on other sectors of the economy
and conducting empirical studies on the role of company strategy, size and structure on the
relationship between core competencies and competitive advantage.
Publisher
University of Nairobi