STRATEGIC CAPABILITIES AND COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE OF SUGAR MANUFACTURING COMPANIES IN WESTERN KENYA
Abstract
Globally, competitive performance of the manufacturing sector remains the lifeblood of an economy because of the critical role it plays in a country’s long-term prosperity. Despite the increased awareness about the essence of strategic capabilities, it is evident that the dynamics in the business environment still presents fresh daily challenges to the manufacturing sector. In addition, sugar companies in Kenya have not found a way to exploit this conjuncture, and are not sufficiently competitive with new market requirements hence poor competitive performance. It is in this regard that the study was designed to analyze the effect of strategic capabilities on competitive performance of sugar manufacturing companies in Western Kenya Region. The study focused on the effect of the marketing and information technology capabilities on competitive performance of sugar manufacturing companies in Western Kenya Region. The study relied on resource-based view and Porters generic theories. The study adopted a cross-sectional study design with a target population of 81 heads of departments and supervisors of five sugar factories in western Kenya region using a census inquiry. Data was collected by use of a questionnaire from the respondents and analyzed by use of both inferential and descriptive statistics using SPSS version 25. From the findings the value of adjusted R squared was 0.515 an indication that there was a variation of 51.5% on the competitive performance of sugar manufacturing companies in Western Kenya Region due to marketing capabilities and information technology capabilities, at 95% confidence interval. This implied that the strategic bundling of these strategic capabilities under study remains a strategic pillar for competitive performance in the sugar manufacturing companies in Western Kenya Region. There is need for the sugar manufacturing companies to strategically invest their resuorces to enhance their strategic capabilities for competitive performance to set them apart from their competitors.
Key Words: Strategic Capabilities, Competitive Performance, Manufacturing Industry
CITATION: Suter, V. J., Juma, D., Onyango, R. O., & Bii, J. (2022). Strategic capabilities and competitive performance of sugar manufacturing companies in western Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 9 (2), 735 – 752.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v9i2.2297
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