Influence of Product Adaptation on Sustainable Competitiveness of Tea Firms in Kenya

Tea is one of the leading foreign exchange earners for the Kenyan economy; however, the product adaptation and sustainable competitiveness in tea firms is inadequate. There is concern to produce and process tea in an environmentally friendly manner through collaboration with the stakeholders, in a way that guarantees sustainable competitiveness. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of product adaptation and sustainable competitiveness in tea firms. This research utilized the resource based view theory. The study targeted 878 respondents from 107 registered tea firms in Kenya and multistage sampling method was used to get sample size of 484. Questionnaires were used to collect the primary data. Inferential and descriptive statistics was employed during data analysis. A positive relationship existed between product adaptation and sustained competitiveness [r = .552, n = 433, p<.05]. The product corporate environmental practices positively influence the sustainable competitiveness in tea firms in Kenya. Managers should conceptualize eco-design in order to reduce the impact of products on the environmental, leading to a longer lifecycle and its simplification, hence assisting it to project from the competition in making business their decisions