COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND PERFORMANCE OF HEAVY CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERS IN KENYA: CASE OF NAIROBI COUNTY
Nyambane Mabeta Jackson - Masters of Business Administration (Strategic Management), Kenyatta University, Kenya
Bett Shadrack - Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Organizations will always try to offer best products at lower prices in the market in contrast with their rivals. Competition is the state inside a market setting where firms work and set procedures to pick up advantage or more noteworthy accomplishment over each other. The capacity of an organization to outflank its opposition relies upon the capacity to exploit advertise movement patterns; capacity to catch and ensure 'out of line share' of business sectors; capacity to catch premium estimating; judicious creation and presentation of new items. This study sought to establish the competitive advantage and their effect on the performance of heavy construction equipment suppliers in Kenya. The specific objectives for the study were to establish the effect of price, quality products and services, agency distributorship network and stakeholders’ relationship on performance of heavy construction equipment suppliers in Kenya. The study was anchored on Porter’s model and Resource based view theory of a firm. The study would benefit various groups including top management of heavy construction equipment suppliers, the government, the stakeholders of such firms and its staff. The study employed a descriptive research design. Six firms dealing with supplies of heavy construction equipment in Kenya were selected around Nairobi county. Staff from the technical and marketing departments formed the target population who totaled up to one hundred and thirty-eight. A census was done given the small size of the population. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data. The questionnaires were administered using drop and pick method in instances where respondents needed to review the responses at a later time. Data was analyzed using SPSS through descriptive and inferential statistics and presented through tables, charts and graphs. The expected outfit at the end of the study of the researcher expected to establish that price, quality of product, agency distribution network and stakeholders’ relationship affected performance of heavy construction equipment suppliers. the study established that the studied organizations regarded pricing as a strategy used within the company to gain competitive advantage, price (β=-0.179, p=0.026<0.05) had a significant inverse effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers, customers considered the products as of superior quality in comparison to other similar products, quality product and services (β=0.017, p=0.004<0.05) had a positive and significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers, the studied organizations considered their agency distribution networks (supplier-ships) as a competitive advantage, distributorship network agency (β=0.225, p=0.00<0.05) had positive and significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers, most of the studied organizations considered stakeholders (suppliers, clearing agents, transporters) relationships as a factor for competitive advantage, stakeholders relationship (β=0.259, p=0.00<0.05) had direct and significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers. The study concludes that p rice had a significant inverse effect on performance heavy construction equipment supplier. Quality product and services had a positive and significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers. Agency distributorship network had positive and significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers. Stakeholders relationship had direct and significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers. The study recommends that top management team of all heavy construction equipment suppliers should increase the premiums charged and continue to competitively lower prices for improved performance of their organization. The management team of all heavy construction equipment suppliers should improve on quality of products offered to customers in order to increase performance. For growth in market share, all organizations in Kenya should invest resources in agency distributorship networks. In order to improve om profitability, all heavy construction equipment suppliers should invest resources in stakeholder relationships.
