DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE OF DEPOSIT TAKING SACCOS IN MURANG’A COUNTY, KENYA
Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to determine the effect of differentiation strategy on performance of SACCOs in Murang’a County of Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population consisted of all the 8 deposit taking SACCOs registered and actively operating in Murang’a county of Kenya. The targeted respondents were 64 in total and comprised of all CEOs, accountants, credit managers, marketing managers and all the 4 executive board Members of each SACCO society. The study utilized a census approach that identified and subjected all the Deposit Taking SACCOs registered and operating in the county to the study. The study utilized both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. Both bivariate and multivariate analysis was conducted using SPSS. The study found that differentiation strategy was applied to a large extent (M=4.05, SD=0.85) among participating SACCOS. Regression analysis showed that there was a strong positive correlation (r=0.672) between the differentiation strategy and performance of SACCOs. Differentiation strategy (p=0.00) was also statistically significant. The findings showed that a unit change in the application of the differentiation strategy resulted in a 1.680 change increase in performance of SACCOs. As such, a conclusion was reached that differentiation strategy was a useful predictor of performance. The study recommended up scaled pursuit of continuous development of SACCO products to enhance their marketability and acceptance.
Key Words: Differentiation, performance, competitive advantage, savings and credit cooperative societies (SACCOs)
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v5i3.801
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