International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

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Human Resource Capability and Competitive Advantage of Sugar Companies in Western Kenya

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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.
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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.