Generic Competitive Strategies and Organizational Performance in Manufacturing Industries in Rwanda

Abstract

The business models incur high costs, limited uniqueness of feature of products and fewer resources that present the significant negative effect on organization performance. The overall study of this research is to assess generic competitive strategies and organization performance in Rwanda. The specific objectives were to determine the effect of cost leadership strategy on performance of Sulfo Industries Ltd, to examine the effect of differentiation strategy on performance of Sulfo Industries Ltd and to assess the effect of focus strategy on performance of Sulfo Industry Ltd. In research methodology, researcher used a descriptive research in both quantitative and qualitative. The target population was 135 from which a sample of 100 respondents was selected using formula developed by Slovenes. Therefore, researcher used a simple random sampling technique and data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science version21. Findings and recommendations for this research provided a clear understanding and guidance for better management of Sulfo Industries Ltd. The information collected from respondents showed that 83.2% strongly agreed that Sulfo Industry applies generic competitive strategies where low costs led to desired performance. This was also agreed or confirmed by 13(12.9) of surveyed respondents. Therefore, differentiation strategy shows the uniqueness and premium price of products. This was as strongly agreed by 37(36.6) and 81(60.4) respectively. The information collected also revealed that 64(63.4) of surveyed respondents strongly agreed that the focus strategy aims at increasing the market share in a niche market to achieve performance. This was also agreed by 33(32.7) of surveyed respondents. However, the magnitude of association is indicated by regression of 1.040, which is statistically significant as the p-value is 0.000 as < 0.05. Moreover, it is highly recommended to maintain generic competitive strategies of Porters, which play a great role on organization performance within competitive market. The industry needs to establish code of conducts, undertake training opportunities, reduce unnecessary cost and encourage quality and quantitative products all these will lead to the desired performance.