Abstract: Therefore, the research wished to investigate the effectiveness of Marketing Mix on Competitive Advantage of private universities of Nakuru County. The guiding framework reviewed Porters theory of competitive advantage, Market Based View, Resource Based View and Institutional Theories that constituted the literature, as well as carrying out empirical study of similar research in the industry. The study adopted the cross-sectional survey design, whereby the sample population was selected from the Private Universities. 233 staff members was purposively sampled and used as sample size from the target population of 5 private universities. This study used questionnaires containing both structured and unstructured questions so as to be able to capture more information and this was for collection of primary data. No secondary data was used from the private university’s resource data. The questionnaires were pilot tested in order to validate and yielded a Cronbach reliability of 0.83 coefficients. The collected data was coded, edited for errors and then analyzed. Descriptive statistics (means, frequencies, and percentages) was done by use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 for windows, and processed information therefore shown by way of tables, pie charts and graphs. This study showed the components for marketing mix namely product, price, promotion and positioning are effective strategies for private universities’ competitive advantage. The researcher recommends that the government have a function of supporting, regulating and monitoring private universities to ensure that they operate effectively. Everyone in the private universities right from the top management, staff and students are recommended to embrace use of marketing mix tailored to their unique university characteristics to enhance competitive advantage.
Keywords: Competitiveness, Marketing Mix, Competitive Advantage and Effectiveness.
Title: Effectiveness of Marketing Mix on Competitive Advantage of Private Universities: A Case of Selected Private Universities in Nakuru County
Author: Loice A. Onyango, Dr. Vincent Ntabo, Paul Cheboi
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
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