Effect of Competitive Priorities on the Operations Performance of Sugar Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

The stiff competition in Kenya’s sugar sector is competing away industry profits. As a result, these sugar firms find themselves in debts and losing money. To explore the critical factors of these sugar manufacturing firms, the study sought to assess the effect of competitive priorities on their operations performance. The specific objectives were to: assess the effect of cost on the performance; to explore the effect of delivery on the performance; determine the effect of flexibility on the performance; and to assess the effect of quality on the performance of sugar manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study hypotheses were statistically tested at α = 0.05. The study was hinged on both Strategic Contingency Theory as well as RBV, and adopted both descriptive survey and experimental research designs anchored on realism ontology, and used both quantitative and qualitative approach. The unit of analysis was sugar manufacturing plant, and targeted all the 12 licensed sugar manufacturing firms in Kenya. The respondents were sought through both purposive and simple random sampling strategies, and a sample of 165 respondents was generated. Structured questionnaires and semi-structured interview schedule were the main tools to collect primary data. A pilot study was done to test the validity and reliability of the survey tools. Data was processed and analyzed both descriptively and inferentially using Microsoft Excel 2010 and SPSS version 21. EFA, correlation analysis and regression analysis, correlation analysis were equally used, while qualitative data analysis was done through expert judgment, scenario mapping and critical thinking, presented using frequency distribution tables. The overall study results revealed that competitive priorities have a significant effect on performance. Based on the findings, the study concluded that the management of these sugar firms needs to identify appropriate critical factors on which to compete