Moderating effect of transformational leadership on the relationship between strategic alliances and competitiveness, financial institutions, Kenya

Abstract

This research aimed at moderating the effect of transformational leadership on the relationship between strategic alliance and competitiveness in the Financial Institutions. The study Specific Objectives of the study were to determine the effect of Joint Venturing Alliance on competitiveness, to establish the influence on Equity Alliance on competitiveness, to analyze the effect of Non-Equity Alliance on competitiveness, to examine the influence of Product Licensing on competitiveness, to examine the moderating effect of Transformational Leadership on the relationship between Strategic Alliance and competitiveness in Financial Institutions in Kenya. The study adopted four theories, main one being The Resource Based View Theory. The study used Descriptive Research Design. The area of study was the Financial Institutions in Kenya. The target population of the study was 434 respondents in management departments in financial institutions in Kenya. This study used Stratified Random Sampling Technique to collect data from the sample frame. Questionnaire was used as the main data collection instrument. The data was analyzed using Regression Analysis and Descriptive Statistics (SPSS version 20). There was a strong positive relationship between strategic alliance and competiveness of the Financial Institutions. The findings of the study revealed that Technological Alliances had a positive and statistically significant effect on Competitiveness of Financial Institutions with (r=0.630; p=<0.05), Product Alliances had a positive and statistically significant effect on Competitiveness of Financial Institutions with (r=0.620; p=<0.05), Marketing Alliance has a positive and statistically significant effect on competitiveness of Financial Institutions with (r=0.611; p=<0.05) and Joint Venture Alliance had a positive and statistically significant effect on competitiveness of Financial Institutions with (r=0.620; p=0.05). Recommendations; the Managers to give more emphasis on utilization of Product Alliances since it helps the financial institution in diversification of its products and services to the customers. The assumption of Normality is based on the shape of normal distribution and gives the researcher knowledge about what values to expect, Linearity directly relates to the bias of the results of the whole analysis and the assumption that errors are independent of one another, implying that subjects are responding independently.