| dc.description.abstract | The financial market in Kenya has been growing over the past decade and it is increasingly becoming
more competitive.Since new entrants appear in the market every now and then, banks must find ways
to maintain a competitive advantage.The increasing competitive environment for most banks makes
enterprises to innovate the products and services they provide. The extent to which innovations by
microfinance institutions on products and services contribute to profit, number of depositors and
revenue in Nakuru town is not known.
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the role of strategic innovation in creating competitive
advantage in microfinance institutions within Nakuru town. The objectives of the study was to
determine theextent to which product innovation contribute to the increase in profit, number of
depositors and increase in revenues. The study used descriptive design, the population under study was
microfinance institutions in Nakuru and the entire population was studied with branch managers as the
respondents. Data was collected using structured questionnaires and then analyzed using descriptive
statistics and multiple regression analysis. The research findings were that product innovations do not
contribute to profit, number of clientele and revenue however individual innovations such as new
product development, management approaches, efficiency in serving customers and training was found
to contribute to profit,number of clientele and revenue.Factors such as capital, amount of loan and
revenue are therefore the major variables that determine the firms, competitiveness.The
recommendation therefore is that the managers of the various microfinance institutions should be more
creative and innovative in order to adopt unique practices to enhance competitiveness in the industry. | en_US |
