The sugar industry contributes about 15 percent to the Kenya’s agricultural GDP and supports an estimated 25 percent of the country’s population. The objective of the study was to assess the influence of human resource capability in the context of strategic capability on competitive advantage of sugar companies in Western Kenya The target population was composed of six sugar companies; the respondents were 727 managers and the sample size consisted of 88 respondents with a response rate of 73%. The primary data was collected using a questionnaire pretested for validity and reliability. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The logit results showed that companies that had a strong human resource capability were 1.012 times more likely to be competitive compared to those that had a weak human resource capability; correlation result was a weak positive statistically insignificant correlation between human resource capability and competitive advantage( r= 0.003) and hypothesis result showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between human resource capability and competitive advantage of sugar companies in Western Kenya. It was concluded that companies that had strong human resource capability were more likely to enjoy competitive advantage compared to those that had weak human resource capability. Competitive advantage of the sugar companies in Western Kenya is positively influenced by the human resource capability. It was recommended that the sugar industry should pay keen attention to how human resource capabilities are placed and utilized. If observed, the competitive advantage would be enhanced which would then lead to better performance of the sector.
Almeida, F. E. B., Lisboa, J. V., Augusto, M. G., & Batista, P. C. S. (2013). Organizational capabilities, strategic orientation, strategy formulation quality, strategy Implementation and organizational performance in Brazilian Textile Industries. EnANPAD XXXVII, 1 – 15.
Argote, L., & Ingram, P. (2000). Knowledge Transfer: A Basis for Competitive Advantage in Firms. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 82(1), 150–169.
Augier, M., & Teece, D. J. (2009). Dynamic capabilities and the role of retailers in business strategy and economic competitive advantage. Organization Science, 20(2), 410–421.
Barney, J. B. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99-120.
Barney, J. B. (2001a). Is the resource-based "view" a useful perspective for strategic management research? Yes. Academy of Management Review, 26, 41-56.
Barney, J. B. (2001b). “Resource-based theories of competitive advantage: a ten-year retrospective on the resource-based view?. Journal of Management, 27, 643–650.
Barro, R. J. (1991). Economic growth in a cross section of countries. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106, 407-443.
Batool, A., & Batool, B. (2012). Effects of employees training on the organizational competitive advantage: Empirical study of Private Sector of Islamabad, Pakistan. Far East Journal of Psychology and Business, 6(1), 59 – 72.
Becker, D. (1964). Human capital. A theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bontis, N., & Serenko, A. (2007). The moderating role of human capital management practices on employee capabilities. Journal of Knowledge Management 11(3), 31 – 51.
Brown, J. D. (2011). Likert items and scales of measurement? SHIKEN: JALT Testing & Evaluation SIG Newsletter, 15(1) 10-14.
Bula, H. O. (2012). Labor turnover in the sugar industry in Kenya. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(9), 111 -119.
Chuang, H. M., Liu, M. J., & Chen, Y. S. (2014). The Effects of Human Resource Capability and Internal Customer Satisfaction on Organizational Effectiveness. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, Article ID 835194, 1 – 10.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edition). New Jersey State: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Duncan, W. J., Gintei, P. M., & Swayne L. E. (1998). Competitive advantage and internal organizational assessment. Academy al Managemsnl Executive, 12 (3), 6 – 16.
Edralin, D. M. (2004). Training: A Strategic HRM Function. Notes on Business Education 7 (4). Published by the De La Salle University, College of Business and Economics Research and Development (CBERD).
Faugoo, D. (2009). Globalisation and Its Influence on Strategic Human Resource Management, Competitive Advantage and Organisational Success. International Review of Business Research Papers, 5 (4), 123?133.
Johnson, G., Whittington, R., and Scholes, K. (2011). Exploring Strategy (9th Edition). Published by Prentice Hall
Kahreh, M. S., Ahmadi, H., & Hashemi, A. (2011). Achieving competitive advantage through empowering employees: An empirical study. Far East Journal of Psychology and Business, 3(2), 26 – 37.
Kaumbutho, P. G., Awiti, L. M., & Some, D. K. A. (1991). Analysis of sugarcane and sugar production costs for the Kenyan Sugar Industry. Kenya Sugar Authority.
Kenya Sugar Board (KSB). Year Book of Sugar Statistics (2010). Nairobi: KSB
Kenya Sugar Industry (2009). Nairobi, Kenya:.
Kiker, B. F. (1966). The historical roots of the concept of human capital. Journal of Political Economy, 74(5), 481 – 499.
Lahiri, P. (2013). Parametric bootstrap in small area estimation: joint program in survey methodology. College Park, USA.
Mankiw, N. G., Romer, D., & Weil, D. N. (1992). A contribution to the empirics of economic growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107(2), Cambridge: MIT Press Journals, 407-437.
Melike, B., Melda, O., Seçkin, S., & Elçin, A. (2005). Determinants of H
In-Text Citation: (Imbambi, Awiti, & Aketch, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Imbambi, R. M., Awiti, L., & Aketch, N. E. (2019). Human Resource Capability and Competitive Advantage of Sugar Companies in Western Kenya. International Journal of Academic Research Business and Social Sciences, 9(5), 232–250.
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
