Influence of Online Distribution Channel Intermediary Strategy on Competitive Advantage of Hotels and Restaurants in Nairobi

Abstract

The complex nature of hotel and restaurant business necessitates the need for use of various strategies to achieve competitive advantage. This may be achieved by firms improving their efficiency and effectiveness while remaining agile. The ipurpose iof ithis istudy iwas itodetermine ithe iinfluence online idistribution channel intermediary istrategy has ion competitive iadvantage by hotels and restaurants in Nairobi as well as establishing the most prefferable form of online distribution channel intermediary strategy by hotels and restaurants in Nairobi.The study was founded on Dynamic capabilities and Network theories, which provides a conceptual and pragmatic guideupon which firms can match capabilities to opportunities within the environment and understand relationship-building frameworks, human behaviour and become innovative respectively, in order to achieve competitive advantage.A cross-sectional survey design was adopted based on a descriptive approach. The study employed a non proportional stratified random sampling technique in selecting respondents. The population for this study was hotels and restaurants in Nairobi. Nairobi has approximately 57 top star-rated hotels (2, 3, 4 and 5 star-rated) and 212 restaurants. (Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA) Classification Register, 2020 and Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA) Licensed restaurants Register (2018-2019). The total target population was 269 out of which a sample size of 80 was selected using a non propotional random stratified sampling technique. Stratification was based on nature of premises and offerings (either hotel or restaurant). 30% of each strata was then taken to represent the total sample size.The research tool used was a Questionnaire which was the researcher’s main primary data collection instrument.Dataiwasianalysed iusing aidescriptive iand inferential istatistics approach. The study findings revealed that social media sites are the most preferable form of online distribution channel intermediary strategy with a mean of 0.4 as illustrated in figure 4.1 of the studied hotels and restaurants usability. This implies that hotels and restaurants should focus more on their social media sites while intending to improve their competitive iadvantage through ithe intervention of online distribution intermediary strategy. Additionally, the study established that online distribution channel intermediary hasiaipositive influence ion ithe competitive iiadvantage iof ihotels and restaurants in Nairobi.The findings from the study also established that all competitive advantage indicators have a mean above 3.5 meaning all the competitive advantage indicators have been impacted on by the use of online distribution intermediary strategy. The findings also suggested the existence of a positive and statistically significant relationship between online distribution channel intermediary Strategy and competitive advantage of hotels and restaurants in Nairobi with P valuesof 0.0000 each which is less than 0.05 as shown in table 4.7. The researcher recommends that hotels and restaurants in Nairobi consider implementing online distribution channel intermediary strategy in order to boost their chances of improving their entities’competitive advantage.