External Benchmarking Strategy and Service Delivery in Multinational Pharmaceutical Firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya
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Date
2021
Authors
Murerwa, Betty Mukiri
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
This study was carried out with an aim of investigating external benchmarking strategy and service delivery in multinational pharmaceutical firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Improved service delivery in pharmaceutical industry is vital in saving the lives of children dying of malaria and other infectious diseases in Africa. This call for effective provision of medical services though the administration of pharmaceutical products. According a report given out by Pharmacy and Poisons Board in September 2017, it was realized that there is a need to improve the service delivery measures among the local and multinational pharmaceutical industries based in Kenya. A benchmarking strategy is viewed as the effort put forth by firms in an attempt of gaining competitive advantage over other competitors by searching for leading firms within the same industry and studying their best practices for improved performance. Several benchmarking strategies can be used to improve service delivery of the multinational pharmaceuticals in the Kenya’s Nairobi City County. Benchmarking can be categorized into: functional, competitive, and generic benchmarking. Functional benchmarking entails a firm aligning most of its key functional operations to those of key players in the industry by studying their operations. Competitive benchmarking is used against direct competitors. Generic benchmarking is a type of benchmarking that entails the identification of similar business organization and processing activities irrespective of the nature of the business industry. The descriptive research design was engaged for use in the study. The design chosen as it was believed to give accurate information on the variables under study. The study population for the research study was the management and employees from the multinational pharmaceutical companies based in Nairobi County and this made it easy for data collection since the majority have got their headquarters based within Nairobi. The instruments implemented in this research study was questionnaires which were developed and presented by the researcher to the study’s participants. The census method of sampling was adopted for use in getting the sample to be included in the study. The collected data was then sorted out and descriptive and inferential analysis were run to analyze the quantitative data by use of the SPSS software. The analyzed data was then presented by use of graphs, tables and pie charts in the forms of frequencies, standard deviations and means. The findings from the study indicated that functional, competitive and generic benchmarking affected service delivery in multinational pharmaceutical firms to great extent. The study further concluded that that through comparison of the sales volume among the pharmaceutical firms, it becomes easy for other pharmaceutical firms to make an adjustment on the nature of service delivery offered. This study further recommended it was necessary for future scholars to carry out similar study but in different fields such as financial and agricultural sector to check whether the findings would concur.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements or the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration in Strategic Management of Kenyatta University, June, 2021
Keywords
External, Benchmarking Strategy, Service Delivery, Multinational Pharmaceutical Firms, Nairobi City County, Kenya