Influence of Collaborations and Partnerships on the Competitiveness of Insurance Companies in Kenya: The Moderating Role of Competency Traps
Keywords:
Competency traps, firm competitiveness, insurance industry, Kenya, collaborations and partnershipsAbstract
This study examined the moderating influence of competency traps on the relationship between collaborations and partnerships and the competitiveness of insurance companies in Kenya. Grounded in the resource-based view and organizational learning theory, the study addressed the gap in understanding why Kenyan insurers with similar collaborative portfolios exhibit divergent competitive outcomes despite the sector's rapid expansion in gross written premiums and the strategic proliferation of bancassurance, insurtech, and mobile network alliances. Using a descriptive survey design within a positivist paradigm, primary data were collected through structured questionnaires from 203 senior managers drawn from all 50 licensed insurance firms in Kenya via census and judgmental sampling. The study measured collaborations and partnerships across government trade agreements, industry certification, and governance frameworks; competency traps across new technology adoption, innovation inertia, and skills limitations; and firm competitiveness across market share, brand reputation, and customer retention. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23, with descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression employed to test the hypotheses at a 5% significance level. The findings revealed that collaborations and partnerships had a strong and statistically significant positive effect on firm competitiveness (R² = .427, β = .734, p < .001), with government trade agreements (β = .574, p < .001) and governance frameworks (β = .143, p = .019) emerging as significant predictors, while certification was not significant (β = .052, p = .346). More critically, competency traps were found to exert a significant negative moderating influence on the partnership-competitiveness relationship (interaction term B = –.016, β = –.145, p = .004), with the interaction term contributing an additional 1.9% of explained variance (F Change = 8.687, p = .004). These results indicate that while strategic alliances are a potent driver of competitiveness, their efficacy is substantially diminished when firms are entrenched in rigid routines, legacy systems, and path-dependent managerial practices that inhibit the absorption and deployment of new capabilities. The study contributes to strategic management theory by integrating organizational learning pathologies into the alliance performance literature. The study recommends that insurance companies institutionalize deliberate unlearning, strengthen governance and knowledge-sharing mechanisms, invest in continuous digital skills development, and diversify partnerships toward insurtech and mobile-based ecosystems, while regulators should promote adaptive collaboration through regulatory sandboxes and industry-wide knowledge exchange platforms. Future research should employ longitudinal and comparative designs to examine how insurers overcome competency traps and reconfigure capabilities over time.
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