The Effects of Strategic Orientation on Organizational Competitiveness

Strategic orientation is concerned with the decisions that businesses make to achieve superior performance. Strategy formation has been at the heart of strategic management for more than three decades and is concerned with ‘how effective strategies are shaped within the firm’. The cement industry in Kenya has seen intense Organizational competitiveness as many firms enter the industry to get a stake of the market. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of strategic orientation on Organizational competitiveness among cement manufacturing firms. Specifically, the study seek to determine the effect of product orientation, customer orientation, competitor orientation, technology orientation, and technology orientation on Organizational competitiveness among cement manufacturing firms. The cement market is widespread as the firms not only serve local demand but also that of neighbouring countries in East and Central Africa and most recently South Sudan. With heightened Organizational competitiveness, it is important to answer the following research question: How does strategic orientation affect competitiveness of an industry?