Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to establish what factors contribute to sustained competitive advantage in Telecom business organizations. In order to achieve these, the study focused on the following objectives: To find out the strategies that business organizations adopt to develop sustainable competitive advantage; To examine the internal organizational capabilities contributing to competitive advantage; To determine the external environmental factors influencing competitive advantage. To achieve this, the researcher adopted a descriptive study of Safaricom Limited. The population of study comprised of 125 respondents who were mainstream employees involved in the core business of the company and who were identified through non probability sampling in the form of convenience sampling. Data collection was conducted through the use of questionnaires and analyzed through inferential statistics in order to draw conclusions The collected data was first coded statistically and thereafter Microsoft Excel gave the researcher the opportunity to derive descriptive statistics for instance percentages, frequencies as well as ranges. The results were presented via graphs, charts, tables as well as pie charts. The study revealed that the three strategies that can be adopted to enhance organizational sustainable advantage includes; low cost leadership, differentiation as well as market focus. In light of these strategies, the study revealed that all the three strategies contribute to sustainable advantage in organizations. On the aspect of internal capabilities of the organization, the study findings revealed that differentiation was the most outstanding factor that contributes to sustainable competitive advantage. The study however revealed that all the internal capabilities contribute to competitive advantage but with different degrees. On the contribution of the external factors, the study findings revealed that the external factors too contribute amicably to the sustainable competitive advantage of organizations. However the study findings showed that the aspect of strategic alliances was not likely to be effective as far as the sustainable competitive advantage is concerned. In light of the findings above, the recommendations are brought forward. In the aspect of the strategies, the study recommended the uptake of the three strategies in order to attain sustainable advantage. Secondly the study recommended that the internal capabilities be totally exploited in order to attain a competitive advantage. Finally the study recommended that the external factors be considered amicably in order to attain a sustainable competitive advantage.