Effect of competitive intelligence strategy on growth of local airlines operating in Kenya

Abstract

Competitive intelligence has come up as a competitive strategy to foster survival and growth of competing business firms. That is competitive intelligence strategy has come up as a tactical approach that involves continuous gathering, sorting, analyzing and distributing pertinent, timely and accurate business information for use by business strategic decision makers. However, despite the adoption of this competitive intelligence strategy by a number of business firms, very few studies have been done on local airlines in Kenya and few existing studies have been done on single Airlines shown conflicting and inconclusive results especially on one type of competitive intelligence and firm performance. Therefore, lack adequate empirical evidence on the relationship between competitive intelligence and firm growth motivated this study to examine the influence of competitive intelligence strategy parameters namely, customer intimacy intelligence, business intelligence, strategic alliance intelligence, and operational excellence on growth of established local airlines operating in Kenya. The study was guided by the dynamic capability theory, resource based view theory, theory of strategic balancing and the Blue ocean model. The study adopted descriptive survey design and use structured questionnaire to collect primary data. The study targeted 129 managers of relevant sections in local Airlines, where Yamane’s stratified sampling formula was used to calculate a sample size of 98 respondents who were selected through stratified proportionate sampling technique. SPPS version 24 was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to summarize data using frequencies, percentages and means while Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis was computed to examine whether there is correlation, linear and multiple relationship between the independent and dependent variables. . Both descriptive and inferential statistics indicate that customer intimacy intelligence, business intelligence, strategic alliance intelligence and operational excellence have significant effect on growth of local airlines in Kenya. The study concludes that one, customer intimacy intelligence is an effective strategy used to analyze customer preferences, thus when well implemented can boost customer base of local airlines in Kenya; two, local airlines in Kenya investing in feasible operational excellence initiatives can save on operational costs and realize a significant growth in their return on investments. The study recommends that one, local Airlines in Kenya should constantly engage in customer intimacy intelligence to gather information on dynamic customer preferences on specific airline products and services. Secondly, local Airlines in Kenya should install secure and upgraded business information systems to enable them relentlessly capture significant Airline business growth information. Thirdly, local Airlines in Kenya should research and develop viable strategic alliances that can only lead to a significant growth on their customer base and return on assets. Fourthly, local Airlines in Kenya should develop cost effective operational strategies meant to improve their flight operations at minimum costs so as to minimize losses associated with high flight operational costs.