Agent Banking and Sustainable Competitive Advantage for Commercial Banks in Kenya (Published)
Most Kenyan banks with the exception of a few tire one banks have not yet fully exploited agent banking practices. This paper draws upon the Bank Led theory to examine the relationship between agent banking and sustaining competitive advantages for commercial banks in Kenya.The study targets head of departments and branch managers from commercial banks in Nairobi County using a census approach. Questionnaires were used for data collection and a combination of descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis.As depicted in this paper, Agent banking (r=.575, p=0.000) has a linear relationship with sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, the regression model indicated that agent banking had coefficients of 0.292 with corresponding p=0.042<0.05. The positive coefficient implies that agent banking significantly contributed 29.2% of the commercial bank’s competitive edge at 5% level of significance. This would however reduce to 20.5% significant at with the intervention of bank regulations which play a part in ensuring that the stability and safety of banks is maintained. Agent banking is positively related with sustainable competitive advantage and can be significantly influenced by bank regulation. The paper recommends that commercial banks ought to explore agent banking as a tool in advancing sustainable competitive advantage. Tier 1 commercial banks should include budgets specifically for agent banking services in order to move with the technology use.Competitive advantage, agent baking, retail agents, commercial banks, bank regulation, strategy.
Citation: Mwaiwa F., Kwasira J., Boit R., and Chelule J. (2022) Agent Banking and Sustainable Competitive Advantage for Commercial Banks in Kenya, European Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance Research, Vol.10, No. 4, pp.36-51
Keywords: Agent banking, Commercial Banks, Kenya, Sustainable Competitive Advantage