Influence of Customer Orientation Posture on Transient Competitive Advantage Adoption among Private Hospitals in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

Dynamic changes in business environment have led to switch from pursuit of sustained competitive advantage to transient competitive advantage which enables the firm to adapt swiftly to a fast-changing environment. This study’s’ purpose was to assess the influence customer orientation, on the adoption of transient competitive advantage by private multi-practice hospitals in Nairobi City County, Kenya. This study was guided by the dynamic capability theory of the firm and McGrath (2013) transient competitive advantage theory. The study adopted a descriptive correlational survey research design. The total target population was 400 hospital administrators from which a sample size of 200 respondents was selected using Stratified random sampling method. To enhance reliability and validity of study instruments, a pilot study was carried out whereby a reliability coefficient of 0.7 was considered acceptable. Analysis of data was done within acceptance margin of error of 0.95. Regression beta coefficients were used to examine influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable among private multi-practice hospitals in Nairobi City County in Kenya. The study found out that that customer orientation had a statistically significant influence on transient competitive advantage (β= 0.246(t=.000) with model prediction of R square 0.218 significant at F=.000) The study concludes that customer orientation strategic postures has a statistically significant influence on transient competitive advantage among private multi-practice hospitals in Nairobi city County in Keny. Thus the study recommends the hospitals’ policy reviews to capture these areas for improvement: review policy to revamp customer needs surveys, competition analysis, increase customer responsiveness and after service care. The study findings may be important to the management of private hospitals in Kenya with regard to strategic posturing and adoption of transient competitive advantage and also in effort to ensure continuous improvement of customer service among HealthCare services.