The Impact of Systems Thinking as a Construct of Organizational Learning on Competitive Advantage in Kenya’s Oil Marketing Sector

Introduction: Systems thinking has emerged as the convergence point between sciences, a fundamental way of interpreting nature and mastering the ever increasing complexity of the products of human intelligence. Objective: This study aimed to determine the impact of systems thinking as a construct of organizational learning on competitive advantage in Kenya’s Oil Marketing Sector. The latent aspects of competitive advantage; organization agility, innovation, barriers to entry, mass customization and inimitability (difficulty to duplicate) were investigated against the independent variable. Methodology: The research design was explanatory, non-contrived and cross-sectional study on Kenya’s oil marketing sector. A sample size of 425 was drawn from oil marketing companies that had a market share above 1% according to the Petroleum Institute of East Africa. Structured questionnaires were used as the data collection tool. Correlation, regression and SEM model were used to analyze the study findings. Findings: The study found that systems thinking significantly predicted competitive advantage which indicated rejection of the null hypothesis. Keywords: Organizational Learning, Systems Thinking, Competitive Advantage, Oil Marketing Sector

The Impact of Mental Models as a Construct of Organizational Learning on Competitive Advantage in Kenya’s Oil Marketing Sector

Introduction: Despite the growing popularity of organizational learning (OL) and its constructs, the concept remains complex and vague for researchers as well as managers. Mental models are inherently difficult to study and several methods have been developed that essentially document a mental model in the form of a mind map or concept diagram. Objective: This study aimed to determine the impact of mental models as a construct of organizational learning on competitive advantage in Kenya’s Oil Marketing Sector. The latent aspects of competitive advantage; organization agility, innovation, barriers to entry, mass customization and inimitability (difficulty to duplicate) were investigated against the independent variable. Methodology: The research design was explanatory, non-contrived and cross-sectional study on Kenya’s oil marketing sector. A sample size of 425 was drawn from oil marketing companies that had a market share above 1% according to the Petroleum Institute of East Africa. Structured questionnaires were used as the data collection tool. Correlation, regression and SEM model were used to analyze the study findings. Findings: The study found that mental models significantly predicted competitive advantage which indicated rejection of the null hypothesis. Keywords: Organizational Learning, Mental Models, Competitive Advantage, Oil Marketing Sector

Effects of Corporate Culture on Public Sector Reengineering, an Analytical Study of the Kenya Ports Authority

A Research Project Report by Mturi Daniel Jonathan, Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master in Business Administration

Determinants of Competitive Advantage In Kenya’s Oil Marketing Sector

A paper Presentation during the EAMARC III Conference held at USIU-Africa from 15th November to 17th November 2016Many concepts of competitive advantage have been suggested in the economic and business literature. This is due to the fact that competitiveness, unlike comparative advantage, has not been defined rigorously in the early economic literature and after many attempts of definition, it has become a somewhat ambiguous concept (Siggel, 2007). According to Reeves and Deimler (2016) modern and accurate measures of competitive advantage need to be used because among other traditional performance measures, constructs like market leadership are proving to be an “increasingly dubious prize”. The once strong correlation between profitability and industry share is now almost non-existent in some sectors. Siggel (2007) opines that some authors use the term “competitive advantage” synonymously or in a similar way as comparative advantage and others view it as an economy-wide characteristic. Yet other authors discuss competitive advantage synonymously with performance. he traditional market leaders in Kenya’s oil marketing sector despite having enormous infrastructure (tangible assets) have been losing their market share to companies that seemingly are not as well leveraged in terms of tangible assets. This may point to competitive advantage originating from intrinsic and unseen (intangible) resources therefore warranting the need for investigation. For example, the top three oil marketers in Kenya lost a combined 20.6% market share in the first three months of 2016 form a combined market of 71.9 per cent in 2015 and a high of combined market share of 77.9% in 2007 (Juma, 2016). Should Kenya’s Oil Marketing sector revise its approach of viewing competitive advantage from tangible to intangible assets? Do industry practitioner really need to look at competitive advantage as an aggregate construct