Operations Strategy and Competitiveness of Media Houses in Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the operations strategies adopted by media houses in Kenya and how these strategies contribute to competitiveness. The study was guided by the following three objectives; to determine the operations strategies adopted by media houses in Kenya and to establish the relationship between operations strategy and competitiveness of media houses in Kenya. This study adopted a cross sectional survey design of the various media houses in Kenya. The study used a sample of 72 employees from four main media houses in Nairobi Kenya. Primary data was collected through the use of questionnaires which were designed on the basis of the research objective. The questionnaires were administered by the researcher in order to capture all the issues required and also to avoid low response rates Data analysis was carried out using descriptive and regression analysis. The results of the study show that media houses in Kenya have adopted various strategies to ensure they compete favourably in the industry. The results also show that the three operations strategies mostly used by the media houses are cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy and market segmentation strategy. Further, the results of the study show that there is a positive and significant relationship between cost leadership, differentiation and market segmentation strategies and competitiveness of media houses in Kenya. The study therefore concludes that the adoption of the cost leadership, differentiation and market segmentation strategies lead to competitiveness of media houses. The study recommends the use of these strategies by media houses in order to achieve competitiveness. The study further recommends that further studies should be carried out focusing on other operations strategies in future studies to ascertain how they affect competitiveness of media houses in Kenya as well as replicated outside the media industry and outside Kenya to establish whether these variables influence competitiveness.