Competitive Strategies Adopted by Large Manufacturing Firms in the Roofing Industry in Kenya

Abstract

Organizations whether public or private adopt strategies. These strategies are used to ensure growth of the organizations. In some cases, the survival of some organizations is dependent on strategies. The study was carried out to determine the competitive strategies adopted by large manufacturing firms in the Kenyan roofing industry. This study used the cross sectional survey to understand how the different large manufacturing firms utilized different competitive strategies in order to ensure they attain the higher market share than their rivals. The study used both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected by use of a semi structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to different strategic managers in the large manufacturing firms in the Kenyan roofing industries. These strategic managers were corporate strategic managers, business development managers, sales managers and the marketing managers. The study findings established that these large manufacturing firms use competitive strategies. To tackle the competition within the Kenyan roofing industry these large manufacturing firms use different strategies. It was also observed that they all had different mix of these competitive strategies. These findings concurred to what other scholars have found out in their past studies. The use of this different mix of the competitive strategies was evident by the success of one large manufacturing firm to the other. Those with larger market shares used very unique strategies to ensure they out did their rivals. The study recommends that these large manufacturing firms should continue using the different competitive strategies to ensure their success and at times their survival. The study also clearly outlined why some firms are more successful than others. This shows that different strategy mix could lead to greater success than others. The researcher therefore recommends that strategies need to be well crafted and the implementations done very well. The study can be used by other small manufacturing firms to ensure they grow to become the large manufacturers of tomorrow. As revealed in the study the existing firms felt threatened by any new entrant into the industry. This therefore means that they have in store strategies that will deter any new entrant from having an easy entry into the industry.