RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF PETROLEUM COMPANIES IN KENYA
Zipporah Wanjiku Kago - Master of Business Administration, Kenya Methodist University, Kenya
Dr. Evangeline M. Gichunge - School of Business and Economics, Kenya Methodist University, Kenya
Bernard Baimwera - School of Business and Economics, Kenya Methodist University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
The business environment in the last three decades has been faced with numerous changes due to factors such as globalization, adoption of technology, fragmented markets and liberalization of industry rules. Petroleum companies that seek to survive must be fast enough to respond to the pressures to compete on levels unrivalled in the past. The main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between competitive strategies and organizational performance of Petroleum companies in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the effect of differentiation, focus and cost leadership strategies on business competitive strategies of Petroleum companies in Kenya and to determine business competitiveness challenges affecting facing Petroleum companies in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design because of the nature of the data to be collected. This study was a survey of fifty-nine petroleum companies in Kenya. The target population consisted of all the 59 petroleum companies in Kenya. Structured questionnaire with open ended questions was used to collect primary data. The data was analyzed using content analysis and descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that competitive strategies of differentiation, focus strategy and cost leadership enhance business competitiveness. The study sampled52 respondents who constituted top level, middle level and junior management at the Petroleum companies in Kenya.46questionnaires were dully filled and returned to the researcher and gave a response rate of 88%. Variables had a significant effect on cost leadership on relationship between competitive strategies and organizational performance of petroleum companies in Kenya. The independent variables that were studied explain a substantial 89.8% of competitive strategies for performance of as represented by adjusted R2 (0.898). Therefore, the independent variables contribute 84.3% of the business performance. The study concludes that competitive strategies positively influence organization business performance. On the same, the study concludes that strategy implementation improves corporate image, business excellence and operations management, strategy formulation and implementation influence organization performance positively to a great extent resulting to increased organization profitability, business turnover and volumes of sale. The study further concludes that organizations should focus on evolutionary strategic changes, reconstruction strategic changes, adaptation reconstruction changes and revolutionary strategic changes as they enhance growth to a great extent. The study recommends that organizations should focus on adopting competitive strategies so as to improve organizational performance through increasing customer base, asset quality, quality of service and increased market share. Organization should perform effectively on its financial performance clear strategies that guides it operation should be formulated and guidelines be provided to all the concerned departments in order to eradicate occurrence of compromise and there should be effective strategies that cater for the customer needs, organization goals and environmental changes.
