Exploring the synergy of advanced manufacturing technology, competitive advantage, and organizational resources on performance: a study of large manufacturing companies in Kenya

Abstract

Manufacturing companies invest in Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) to improve  their performance  and  positively   contribute to GDP in their Countries. Studies have found that AMT, competitive advantage and organizational resources have a positive and significant relationship with  manufacturing  performance  when considered as  independent  variables. This study investigated  the  joint  effect of AMT, Competitive Advantage, and Organizational resources on performance of large manufacturing companies in Kenya. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional survey. A total of 55 large manufacturing  companies  in  Kenya  that  were members of Kenya Association of Manufacturers formed the population of the study. Multiple regression was used to analyze the collected data. Findings of the study show that AMT, competitive advantage, organizational resources have a very strong relationship to performance of large manufacturing companies in Kenya. Further, the study found that the joint effect of AMT, competitive advantage and organizational resources explained approximately 50% of performance in large manufacturing companies. The study concludes that there is a strong synergy between AMT, competitive advantage and organizational resources which leads to improved performance for manufacturing companies that identify strategic resources they own, adopt and implement AMT properly. The  study  recommends  that manufacturing companies identify appropriate AMT that  are  in  tandem with their manufacturing strategy. The results will particularly assist practitioners in identifying appropriate AMT and development of policy and manufacturing strategies in recognizing the effect of synergy between AMT, competitive advantage and organizational resources on performance in manufacturing companies