Competitive Advantage and Performance of Heavy Construction Equipment Suppliers Nairobi City County, Kenya
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Date
2018-11
Authors
Nyambane, Mabeta Jackson
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Organizations will always try to offer best products at lower prices in the market in contrast with their
rivals. Competition is the state inside a market setting where firms work and set procedures to pick up
advantage or more noteworthy accomplishment over each other. The capacity of an organization to
outflank its opposition relies upon the capacity to exploit advertise movement patterns; capacity to catch
and ensure 'out of line share' of business sectors; capacity to catch premium estimating; judicious
creation and presentation of new items. This study sought to establish the competitive advantage and
their effect on the performance of heavy construction equipment suppliers in Kenya. The specific
objectives for the study were to establish the effect of price, quality products and services, agency
distributorship network and stakeholders’ relationship on performance of heavy construction equipment
suppliers in Kenya. The study was anchored on Porter’s model and Resource based view theory of a
firm. The study would benefit various groups including top management of heavy construction
equipment suppliers, the government, the stakeholders of such firms and its staff. The study employed a
descriptive research design. Six firms dealing with supplies of heavy construction equipment in Kenya
were selected around Nairobi county. Staff from the technical and marketing departments formed the
target population who totaled up to one hundred and thirty-eight. A census was done given the small
size of the population. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data. The questionnaires
were administered using drop and pick method in instances where respondents needed to review the
responses at a later time. Data was analyzed using SPSS through descriptive and inferential statistics
and presented through tables, charts and graphs. The expected outfit at the end of the study of the
researcher expected to establish that price, quality of product, agency distribution network and
stakeholders’ relationship affected performance of heavy construction equipment suppliers. the study
established that the studied organizations regarded pricing as a strategy used within the company to gain
competitive advantage, price (β=-0.179, p=0.026<0.05) had a significant inverse effect on performance
heavy construction equipment suppliers, customers considered the products as of superior quality in
comparison to other similar products, quality product and services (β=0.017, p=0.004<0.05) had a
positive and significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers, the studied
organizations considered their agency distribution networks (supplier-ships) as a competitive advantage,
distributorship network agency (β=0.225, p=0.00<0.05) had positive and significant effect on
performance heavy construction equipment suppliers, most of the studied organizations considered
stakeholders (suppliers, clearing agents, transporters) relationships as a factor for competitive advantage,
stakeholders relationship (β=0.259, p=0.00<0.05) had direct and significant effect on performance
heavy construction equipment suppliers. The study concludes that p rice had a significant inverse effect
on performance heavy construction equipment supplier. Quality product and services had a positive and
significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers. Agency distributorship
network had positive and significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment suppliers.
Stakeholders relationship had direct and significant effect on performance heavy construction equipment
suppliers. The study recommends that top management team of all heavy construction equipment
suppliers should increase the premiums charged and continue to competitively lower prices for
improved performance of their organization. The management team of all heavy construction equipment
suppliers should improve on quality of products offered to customers in order to increase performance.
For growth in market share, all organizations in Kenya should invest resources in agency distributorship
networks. In order to improve on profitability, all heavy construction equipment suppliers should invest
resources in stakeholder relationships.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of
Masters of Business Administration in (Strategic Management) of
Kenyatta University