Accomplishing Organisational Turnaround through a Repositioning Strategy in a Manufacturing Context in Kenya

The study investigated how a repositioning strategy can be applied to achieve the goals of a turnaround
strategy. Thus, the study sought to establish the effect of a repositioning strategy on performance of large
manufacturing firms based in Kenya that adopted a turnaround strategy. The study responded to calls to address
existing gaps in the literature on both theoretical and conceptual scopes as well as the bias in extant research
focusing on customer perspective in the operationalization of a repositioning strategy. The study drew from the RBV
and the strategic choice theories and operationalized the repositioning construct into three indicators. The study was
done as a descriptive survey of 107 large manufacturing firms in Kenya with data being obtained from functional
level managers. The study found that the repositioning strategy was practiced by the firms within a range of
moderate to very high extent. Network relationship and internal process control dimensions of the strategy were
found to have a significant positive statistical effect on performance of the sampled firms. The findings provide
evidence of complementarity between the RBV and strategic choice theories and raise implications for strategic
management practice based on anchorage of strategic thinking orientation among firms.