Resource Configurations on Sustainable Competitive advantage of Food and Beverage Firms in Kenya: A Resource Based View of the Firm
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Date
2015-02-25
Authors
Minja, D.
Gachanja, Paul M.
Mutunga, S.L.
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Abstract
The resource based view has gained immense importance in business theorizing and has been widely accepted as
a theory. The Kenyan manufacturing sector contributes about 10 percent to the GDP of which agro-processing
contributes 3 percent. The sector grows at about 4 percent annually and is set to be one of the main drivers of
industrialization and economic growth in the Kenya. The resource based theory of the firm was tested on the
food and beverage firms in Kenya on the basis of resource capability configurations that accord firms sustainable
competitive advantage. From the 138 food and beverage manufacturing firms registered by the Kenya
Association of Manufacturers in 2011, the study targeted 95 firms in and around Nairobi and Mombasa using
purposive judgmental sampling. The study was carried out through a standardized questionnaire. The
independent variables were mainly constructs of intangible assets like firm knowledge, firms’ information
management, strategic planning, organizational structure and organizational culture. Out of the 95 firms
surveyed, 32 responded giving 33.7 percent response rate. From the multivariate ordinary least squares
regression analysis, the effects of organizational structure (p = 0.04, α=0.05) were found significant at 95 percent
confidence interval indicating the importance of the intangible asset to firms’ sustainable competitive advantage.
The findings confirmed the importance of the organizational structure, whose building blocks are individuals in
the firm, as a pattern of communication and relations among a group of human beings, including the process of
making and implementing decisions as key contributors of firms sustainable competitive advantage in Kenya.
Description
Keywords
Firm resources, Organizational structure, sustainable competitive advantage.
Citation
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org Vol.6, No.24, 2014