Business Environmental Forces and Competitive Advantage: An Empirical Study of Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions Facilities in Kenya

Abstract

Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) sector is one of the main contributors of competitiveness across cities and countries. Geographically, Kenya’s vantage position places it as the gateway to East and Central Africa and this has been strengthened by its thriving economy. The MICE sector is considered an economic pillar that boosts the targets envisioned in the Kenya Vision 2030 blueprint. The promotion of the sector through regional markets and appointment of promotional agents for MICE products and services, establishment of a website for promoting services offered in classified MICE facilities, taking part in domestic and international trade fairs, developing marketing resources and monitoring projections on tourist visitations have been undertaken by Kenya Tourism Board. Also, in an effort to expand the sector, 68 international branded hotels were launched in 2019 with an additional 27 expected to penetrate the market by 2024. Despite these initiatives, in the year 2019 MICE sector recorded an insignificant 0.2% increase in revenue, while leisure industry accrued 63.15% in revenue generation. Still in the year 2020, leisure industry accrued revenue of up to 71.56% compared to 0.33% in MICE sector. The gap in proactive marketing of the sector, coupled with bidding and inaccessibility of basic information on the availability of facilities continue to pose a challenge to the expansion of the sector. This research sought to examine the influence that business environmental forces have on competitive advantage of MICE facilities in Kenya, from the lens of Porters Five Forces model of competitive position. The research used explanatory research design anchored on positivist philosophical paradigm. Purposive sampling method was employed and a sample size of 107 drawn from a target population of 496 MICE facilities. Closed-ended questionnaires were utilized during data collection, with key respondents being marketing managers. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. From the analysis, it was established that business environmental forces have a significant direct effect on competitive advantage (β=0.443, p-value <0.05) an indication that MICE facilities are influenced by business environmental forces.