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Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 12, Issue 5, May-2024

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

INTRODUCTION

Universities in Kenya, with the mandate of developing Kenya’s human resource, have recently

received increasing attention due to rising concerns regarding their competitiveness and

sustained performance. These concerns have been triggered by environmental shocks such as

the recent covid-19 pandemic which caused disruptions in the global market, the Russia- Ukraine conflict that affected the country’s dollar liquidity and in turn caused runaway

inflation, global oil price shocks, extreme weather conditions that caused drought in most of the

arid and semi-arid areas of the country, declines in real gross domestic and declining Kenya’s

government’s capacity to fund university education. These issues have raised concerns on

quality and relevance of university education in Kenya. Against this backdrop, this study sort to

test the hypothesis on the joint effect of competitive strategies, competitive advantage, ethical

values and corporate reputation on performance of accredited universities in Kenya. The study

was anchored on four theories: IO (economics) theory, Resource based theory, Stakeholder’s

theory and Virtue ethics theory. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design targeting a

population of 53 accredited universities in Kenya was used. Primary data was collected using

semi-structured questionnaires. The response rate from completed questionnaires was 66.6%.

Data was analysed using multiple regression analysis. Findings of the study stated that, the joint

effect of competitive strategies, competitive advantage, ethical values and corporate reputation

on performance of accredited universities was significantly different than the individual effects

of predictor variables. Thus, all the joint variables were recommended to improve performance.

This study could be replicated in other countries to test for generalization.

Competitive Strategies

Competitive strategies have been described as the deliberate selection of various sets of

activities that would deliver a unique mix of value over competitors or taking offensive or

defensive actions in order to develop a defendable position in an industry to manage

successfully with the Porter’s five competitive forces and thereby yield a superior return on

investment for the company [21]. [22] posited that competitive strategies are engaged by

businesses to achieve or improve competitive advantage and superior performance in their

industry. Consequently, the goal of competitive strategies is to come up with innovative ways

to gain market and industry supremacy by satisfying consumers' needs and preferences and

responding to stakeholders' sensitive needs. Competitive strategies in this study comprised:

Cost-leadership strategy, Differentiation strategy, Focus strategy, Market penetration, Market

production and Product development, and Strategic alliances.

Industrial Organization Theory contends that companies achieve above average performance

based on fit between their strategic approaches and their particular business or industry

structure. In the current study, IO (economics) theory postulated the association between

competitive strategies and performance of accredited universities in Kenya while focusing on

the external environment to determine appropriate strategic approaches that universities

could pursue.

Competitive Advantage

Competitive advantage has been conceptualized variously by different authors in its connection

with performance. [23] posited there were two streams for gaining competitive advantage. The

first stream defined competitive advantage in terms of achieving higher profitability [2; 4; 5]