COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE OF FAMILY OWNED SUPERMARKETS IN BOMET COUNTY, KENYA
Winnie Chebet Kosgey - Master of Business Administration (Strategic Management), Kenyatta University, Kenya
Dr. Reuben Njuguna - Department of Business Administration, Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
The environment that surrounds the business is becoming very competitive as organization attempt to exceed one other. In order for firms to maintain this competitiveness, it’s very important for firms to advance strategies that are competitive advantage that they can seek to withstand. This study sought to establish the influence of competitive strategies on performance of family owned supermarket in Bomet County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were: To establish the effect of focus strategy on performance of family owned supermarket in Bomet County, Kenya; to determine the role of Cost leadership strategy on performance of family owned supermarket in Bomet County, Kenya and to find out the influence of differentiation strategy on performance of family owned supermarket in Bomet County, Kenya. The study used three theories namely: Porter Generic Strategies model, Resource-Based View theory and Resource Dependency Theory. These theories explain the ways that organizations can use the resources at their disposal to create unmatched competitive position. This study was studied through a descriptive research design. The data collection instruments were questionnaires. Collected data was processed using descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, percentages and frequencies. Factor analysis was used to identify which factors were suitable for the research.the study established that cost leadership strategy if applied among family owned supermarket had a positive and significant effect on performance. The study indicated that adoption of differentiation strategy by the enterprises translated positively and significantly to their performance as indicated by a regression coefficient of 0. 891. The study established that in the process of implementing the differentiation strategy, to a large extent the supermarkets have adopted modern ICT and extended their market coverage to new areas. The study pointed out focus strategy as one of Porter’s generic competitive strategies positively influenced performance of family owned supermarkets in Bomet County. It was established that the supermarkets had remained in the same business and advanced in customer services to a large extent. The study concluded that employment of competitive strategies was a significant factor in determining performance of the family owned supermarkets in Bomet County, To a large extent, the firms mainly employed cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy and focus strategy in that order based on their ease in implementation and application of the strategies had various challenges making the enterprise that was able to control and take advantage of them more competitive and hence perform well. The study recommends that the supermarkets need to invest and embrace modern technology in their operations to enhance efficiency and effectiveness and the firms need to counter the challenges that come with the competitive strategies to remain competitive. The study suggested that future research should be carried out on other players in the retail sector like SMEs, hotel industry, merchandisers and other small scale trade. The coefficient of adjusted determination R2 was 0.751; therefore, the residual of the study was 24.9% and can be explained by other factors beyond the scope of the current study that future scholars should focus on.
