COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE OF DEPOSIT TAKING SAVINGS AND CREDIT COOPERATIVES IN MERU COUNTY KENYA
Abstract
This survey determined how competitive strategies affect the performance of Meru County's savings and credit cooperative societies in Kenya. Descriptive research design was applied where a census of 14 Meru County’s deposit taking savings and credit cooperatives in Kenya and 308 respondents was used. The employment of random stratified sampling was applied to select board of directors, senior management, middle level management, and other employees. A sample of 92 respondents was selected using 30% of the target population. Primary data was gathered using both closed and open-ended questionnaires. The instruments were examined for reliability using test-retest method and expert opinion while. An expert's opinion was used to evaluate the content validity. To analyze the data, both descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (correlation and regression) statistics were applied. The study is relevant to investors who want to invest in savings and credit cooperative societies, management in making informed decisions, scholars whereby it formed basis for further research and policy makers in coming up with policies that enhance savings and credit cooperative performance. The discoveries of the investigation demonstrated that cost leadership strategy positively affected performance significantly; differentiation strategy significantly affected performance positively; focus strategy affected performance positively in an insignificantly; while innovation strategy negatively affected savings and credit cooperative performance insignificantly in Meru County, Kenya. The research suggested that the cost leadership strategy be increased in order to boost the savings and credit cooperative societies’ performance in Meru County, Kenya. Therefore, the management of the savings and credit cooperative societies should endeavor to increase the amount of resources channeled into the training of leaders to optimize their managerial potential for optimum growth of the savings and credit cooperative societies.
Key Words: Savings, Customer Retention, Customer Loyalty, Leadership, Differentiation, Focus, Innovation
CITATION: Kathimuuri, R., & Kiiru, D. (2023). Competitive strategies and performance of deposit taking savings and credit cooperatives in Meru County Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 10 (4), 1057 – 1078. http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v10i4.2805
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v10i4.2805
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