BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY: A RISING IMPERATIVE FOR FIRMS IN THE FUTURE; EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY

Abstract

Organizations today are confronted with varying challenges ranging from the need to increase profitability, improve customer satisfaction to attracting more customers. The broad objective of the study is to assess the blue ocean strategy, a rising imperative for firms in the future; evidence from Nigerian telecommunication industry. The specific objectives of the study were to; ascertain the effect of blue ocean strategy implementation on organizational profitability in the Nigerian telecommunication industry; examine the effect of blue ocean strategy implementation on market share of the Nigerian telecommunication industry and identify the impact of blue ocean strategy implementation on customer satisfaction in the Nigerian telecommunication industry. The study adopted cross-sectional survey research design. Data was obtained from 225 respondents working in telecommunication firms in South East Region of Nigeria through the use of questionnaire. The data collected for the study were presented in tables using frequency distribution, percentages; mean score; and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested using simple linear regression analysis with the aid of statistical package for social sciences (IBM, SPSS version 23). The findings revealed that blue ocean strategy had significant positive effect on organizational profitability in the Nigerian telecommunication industry (r = .801^a; F = 466.878; T = 21.607; p - .000); blue ocean strategy had significant positive effect on market share of Nigerian telecommunication industry (r = .680^a; F = 223.971; T = 14.966; p - .000) and that blue ocean strategy had significant positive effect on customer satisfaction in Nigerian telecommunication industry (r = 727^a; F = 292.079; T = 17.090; p - .000). The study concluded that blue ocean strategy implementation had a significant positive effect on Nigeria Telecommunication Industry. It is evident that the blue ocean strategy in today’s business world is a critical component of all strategy. It was therefore recommended amongst others that management of various telecommunication firms should strive to develop new products and services that are beyond the conventional products and services in order to improve their profitability and create competitive advantage that can eliminate competition and attract more customers to them