EFFECTS OF INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES ON COMPETITIVENESS OF FOUR STAR AND FIVE STAR HOTELS IN NAIROBI COUNTY

The objective of the study was to establish effects of innovative strategies on competitiveness of four star and five-star hotels in Nairobi County. The study will use a cross-sectional survey design because it enables the researcher to collect in-depth information about the population being studied. The study targeted four star and five star hotels in Nairobi County. The study respondents were 1 employee at the top management in each of the 36 hotels. Therefore the study targeted 36 respondents in four star and five star hotels in Nairobi County. The data was collected using questionnaires. The researcher administered the questionnaires to the respondents through drop and pick later method. The respondents were given a period of one week to fill in the questionnaire. The returned questionnaires were first checked for completeness, reliability and verification. Editing, coding and tabulation of the data according to the research questions followed the first step.  Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics including the mean and standard deviation. Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between innovative strategies and competitiveness in four star and five star hotels in Nairobi County. The results were presented in form of tables. Multiple regressions were done to analyze the relationship between innovative strategies and competitiveness in four star and five star hotels in Nairobi County. Quantitative data was presented through statistical tools such as frequency distribution tables, pie-charts and bar-graph. Analysis involved the production and interpretation of frequencies counts and tables that will describe and summarize the data. The study found that product innovation had significant positive relationship with competitiveness of four star and five star hotels in Nairobi County; process innovation had significant positive relationship with competitiveness of four star and five star hotels in Nairobi County; marketing innovation had significant positive relationship with competitiveness of four star and five star hotels in Nairobi County and organizational innovation had significant positive relationship with competitiveness of four star and five star hotels in Nairobi County. The study recommends the management to introduce goods and services that are new or that are appreciably enhanced with respect to its characteristics or intended use of the hotels this will lead to inevitable strong interaction within an organization‘s decision areas and with customers and suppliers; management of the hotels should embrace techniques, equipment and software that will enable the managers and employees to provide consistent services that meet some set standards this will ensure that the hotel is able to provide high quality standards for their services; the management of the hotels to conduct a research on the market to establish the needs of the customers and the market they intend to target this will help the marketing department to come up with effective ways to attain the set goals through marketing innovation.