Competitive strategies are a broad range of strategies firms resort to in order to cope with
competition, beat competition or keep ahead of competitors. In the pharmaceutical industry
in Kenya, pharmaceuticals companies have developed competitive advantage that was only
short lived due to quick imitation by fellow competitors especially companies
manufacturing generic products. This study sought to determine strategies adopted by
pharmaceutical companies in Kenya to develop sustainable competitive advantage, to
describe the internal organizational capabilities contributing to pharmaceutical companies
in Kenya competitive advantage, to analyze the external environmental factors influencing
pharmaceutical companies in Kenya competitive advantage.
The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The study population comprised of 25
Pharmaceutical companies in Kenya. Purposive Sampling was used to select two senior
employees in each pharmaceutical company from the finance and operation department,
thus a sample size of 50 respondents. Primary data was collected using pre-determined
questionnaires. Quantitative data collected was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics
using SPSS and presented through percentages, means, standard deviations and
frequencies. Multiple regression analysis was conducted.
The study found that the strategies adopted by pharmaceutical companies in view of
developing sustainable competitive advantage include cost leadership strategy, product
differentiation strategy, market focus, as well as investment in research. Among the external
organizational capabilities include strategic customer targeting, evaluating organizational
strengths and exploring market niches. The internal organizational capabilities contributing
sustainable competitive advantage pharmaceutical companies include, investment in staff
development, resource allocative efficiency, maintenance of quality accounting standards.
This study recommends that differentiation strategy should be highly adopted in order to
promote organizational performance, that organizations should highly adopt cost
leadership strategy and should periodically conduct SWOT analysis as this will be helpful in
establishing business objectives and achieving the organization’s mission, vision and goals.