ABSTRACT
The business environment is never static, but constantly changing according to the influence of
global and national competitive forces and other environmental factors. Firms respond to the
conditions surrounding them by adjusting their purpose and shape via deployment of appropriate
strategic capabilities to subdue the environmental challenges and enhance competitiveness.
Increasingly many firms have resorted to heavy investments in IT capabilities, to cope with the
changing business environment. However, only some firms receive pay offs while many others
do not. This study is of the view that the difference in competitiveness of firms with respect to
the heavy IT investments, is in the manner in which the individual firms uniquely deploy IT
capabilities. However, there is scarcity of information on the deployment of IT capabilities as a
source of competitiveness. This study undertook to explore how the deployment of information
technology capability may be used to build competitiveness among consultancy firms in Nairobi
County, Kenya. This study tested six hypotheses covering direct and moderated (by
environmental conditions) relationships between IT capability and competitiveness, IT capability
and firm competence and between firm competence and competitiveness. This study adopted the
positivist philosophical approach. The cross-sectional explanatory research design was used for
the study, while random sampling method was used to select the target sample. From the total
population of 265 consultancy firms in Nairobi, a target sample of 200 consultancy firms was
picked via Microsoft excel generated random numbers. Data collection was done via structured
questionnaires, after which simple and multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the
data. External validity of the questionnaire was complied with by ensuring adequate sample size,
which for this study was 200. The reliability of the research instrument was tested via test-retest
method on the same pilot sample and the instrument refined to achieve a Cronbach alpha
coefficient of 0.855. The study found that IT capability positively influences firm
competitiveness (R2 = 0.519, β = 0.613, p < 0.05). IT capability also positively influences firm
competence (R2 = 0.464, β = 0.481, p < 0.05). Firm competence partially mediates the
relationship between IT capability and firm competitiveness. The moderating influence of the
environmental conditions was found to be contingent upon the behavior of the environmental
conditions. At high levels of the environmental conditions, the moderating influence of the
environmental conditions on the direct and mediated relationships (mediated by firm
competence) between IT capability and firm competitiveness was significant, but at low and
medium levels of environmental conditions, the moderating influence of the environmental
conditions was not significant. The study thus concluded that it is the level of environmental
conditions (low, medium and high) that determines the moderating influence of environmental
conditions on the direct and mediated relationships among the study variables. Finally the study
recommends that the consultancy firms in Nairobi County should pay more attention to the level
of IT capability utilized and use more online interaction with customers and suppliers; enhance
the level of automation of processes and customer information; increase the level of usage of
email in the organization and lastly, regularly scan the prevailing environmental conditions in
Kenya in order to timely upscale the IT capability to match any increase in the environmental
conditions. Subsequently, the consultancy firm will enjoy higher level of firm competitiveness in
terms of better cost efficiency, more differentiated services and better service quality.
TANUI, J (2021). Interaction Between Information Technology Capability, Environmental Conditions And Competitiveness Of Consultancy Firms In Nairobi County, Kenya. Afribary. Retrieved from https://afribary.com/works/interaction-between-information-technology-capability-environmental-conditions-and-competitiveness-of-consultancy-firms-in-nairobi-county-kenya
TANUI, JOEL "Interaction Between Information Technology Capability, Environmental Conditions And Competitiveness Of Consultancy Firms In Nairobi County, Kenya" Afribary. Afribary, 01 Jun. 2021, https://afribary.com/works/interaction-between-information-technology-capability-environmental-conditions-and-competitiveness-of-consultancy-firms-in-nairobi-county-kenya. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.
TANUI, JOEL . "Interaction Between Information Technology Capability, Environmental Conditions And Competitiveness Of Consultancy Firms In Nairobi County, Kenya". Afribary, Afribary, 01 Jun. 2021. Web. 10 Oct. 2024. < https://afribary.com/works/interaction-between-information-technology-capability-environmental-conditions-and-competitiveness-of-consultancy-firms-in-nairobi-county-kenya >.
TANUI, JOEL . "Interaction Between Information Technology Capability, Environmental Conditions And Competitiveness Of Consultancy Firms In Nairobi County, Kenya" Afribary (2021). Accessed October 10, 2024. https://afribary.com/works/interaction-between-information-technology-capability-environmental-conditions-and-competitiveness-of-consultancy-firms-in-nairobi-county-kenya