Competitive Strategies and Performance of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Companies in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The study aimed to examine the impact of competitive strategies on the performance of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) companies in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The independent variables were marketing, survival, internal resources and flexibility strategies. The dependent variable was organizational performance. The study was supported by the competitive strategic theory, survival-based theory, resource-based theory, and dynamic capabilities theory. The study targeted the employees of all levels and owners of all 79 companies in the County. 79 semi-structured questionnaires were issued and 57 were responded to, which was 72% response rate. Quantitative data were collected using the Likert Scale. Means, frequency tables and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the collected data. The main findings of the study were that competitive strategies had a low impact on the performance of LPG companies in Nairobi County. Additionally, marketing strategies had a higher influence on performance compared to survival, internal resources, and flexibility strategies. Based on the findings, the study recommended higher application of marketing strategies such as product differentiation, niche targeting, unique distribution, and products quality in order to improve performance.

Key words: Competitive strategies, Performance, Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), Nairobi City County, Kenya