INFLUENCE OF COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES IN KENYA
Jackson Kyengo - Masters Student, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Kepha Ombui - Senior Lecturer, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Mike A. Iravo - Senior Lecturer, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Telecommunication firms with strong financial background have long realized this key operational aspect and their strategy is to deploy various competitive strategies based on prevailing demands. The general objective of the study was to establish the influence of competitive strategies on the performance of telecommunication companies in Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to; determine the effect of cost leadership strategies on the performance of telecommunication companies in Kenya; to find out the extent that adoption of market focus strategies affect the performance of telecommunication companies in Kenya; to establish the effect of differentiation strategies on the performance of telecommunication companies in Kenya and ; to determine the effect of corporate growth strategies on the performance of telecommunication companies in Kenya. The study adopted descriptive research design. The target population of this study consisted of three telecommunication firms in Kenya which include; Safaricom Limited, Airtel, and Telkom Kenya Limited. The study had a sample size of 120 employees. The study adopted purposive procedure to select the study sample. The study was based on primary data which was collected using questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was estimated using Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient from the pilot test data. the findings, the study concludes that telecommunication companies in Kenya had adopted competitive strategies which included; cost leadership strategies, market focus strategies, differentiation strategies and corporate growth strategies. The firm performance of the telecommunication companies in Kenya had significantly improved over the last five years. From the regression analysis, the most significant competitive strategy in performance of the telecommunication companies in Kenya is cost leadership strategies, followed by differentiation strategies, market focus strategies and corporate growth strategies respectively. The study recommends that the management of telecommunication companies in Kenya should continuously evaluate the implementation of cost leadership strategy. The management of telecommunication companies in Kenya should conduct a research on the market focus strategy to respond to the different market niches effectively.
