Realizing energy management practices as a competitive strategy among manufacturing firms in Kenya: An alternative outlook

Abstract

The Kenya’s Energy Management Regulations (2012) spells out a raft of actions that consumers of electricity and petroleum products can implement so as to enhance energy efficiency, reduction of energy costs and creation of surplus for distribution. However, few manufacturing companies have carried out implementation. The regulations create avenues for enforcements and promotion of energy management practices within the sector. With lack of coordination and capacity building, energy inefficiencies have continued unabated. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of implementation of energy management regulations on attaining competitive advantage among manufacturing firms in Kenya. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used. A normative survey research design was considered with a target population of 1,459,870 employees drawn from manufacturing in Nairobi County, Kenya. A sample of 399 respondents was randomly selected. Self-administered questionnaire were used to collect primary data while empirical data was obtained from previous studies. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, and frequency distributions). Inferential statistics included correlation for test of association, and regression for test of hypothesis. The results showed that implementing energy management regulations contributes 35.7% increase in firm competitive performance while holding other factors constant. The regression result showed that energy management regulations when implemented accounts for 18.6% change in competitive advantage; hence, there remains other factors to be investigated.