Moderating Influence of institutional characteristics on the Relationship between Generic Strategies and Organizations' Competitiveness of Sugar Firms in Kenya

Abstract

Firms employ numerous types of strategies in an effort to attain their organizational objectives and also improve the organizations' performance and sugar firms are not exclusion. The main objective of study was to assess institutional characteristics influence on affiliation between generic strategies and organizations' competitiveness of sugar firms' in Kenya. The study tested the null hypothesis that the influence of institutional characteristics on affiliation between generic strategies and organizations' competitiveness of sugar firms' is not statistically significant. The institutional theory backed the study and it argues that within an institution there are structures within which the actions within the organization operate. Descriptive cross-sectional research design was used in this study. The study was done on sugar firms which were operating in Kenya and all the production, marketing, finance and general managers as well as their assistants of every sugar firm and its affiliated farmers out grower firms. Kenya Sugar Board (2019) states that there are twelve sugar firms in Kenya and twelve affiliated farmers out grower firms; hence the target population was all the twelve sugar firms with 240 managers. The sample size of this study was 148 arrived at by the use of Krejcie& Morgan (1970) sample determination table. The study results indicated that the influence of generic strategies and institutional characteristics on organizational competitiveness of sugar firms' was significant and positive (p< .05). The change in R² because of the interface term was .014 (.396 - .382) and the interaction term was significant (p < .05). The hypothesis criterion was that reject the null hypothesis if p-value is less than .05 and β ≠ 0 or else don't reject, in case p-value > 0.05. Based on the study results, β ≠ 0 and p-value< 0.05, the study rejected the null hypothesis and stated that generic strategies and organizations' competitiveness relationship was moderated by institutional characteristics (firm size, firm ownership and management structure) of sugar firms. The study therefore concludes that the institutional characteristics (firm size, firm ownership and management structure) influence on affiliation between generic strategies and organizations' competitiveness of sugar firms was important and was moderated by institutional characteristics (firm size, firm ownership and management structure). This study recommends that sugar firms in Kenya need to consider incorporating institutional characteristics in their operations since this study has found out that institutional characteristics (firm size, firm ownership and management structure) moderates the relationship between generic strategies and organizations' competitiveness.