HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF FOOD AND BEVERAGES COMPANIES IN PORT HARCOURT RIVERS STATE.

HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF FOOD AND BEVERAGES COMPANIES IN PORT HARCOURT RIVERS STATE

HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF FOOD AND BEVERAGES COMPANIES IN PORT HARCOURT RIVERS STATE.

 

 

EMMANUEL ETHEL IFEYINWA

IAUE/2018/MGT/Ph.D./0016

 

 

MAY, 2021.

 

 

 

TITLE PAGE

 

HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF FOOD AND BEVERAGES COMPANIES IN PORT HARCOURT RIVERS STATE.

 

 

EMMANUEL ETHEL IFEYINWA

IAUE/2018/MGT/Ph.D./0016

 

 

 

A Dissertation submitted to Postgraduate school in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of degree Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Management.

(Human Resource Management Option)

 

 

MAY, 2021

DECLARATION

I Emmanuel Ethel Ifeyinwa with Registration Number IAUE/2018/MGT/Ph.D/0016  declare          that   this Thesis on “Human Capital Development And Competitive Advantage Of Food And Beverages Companies In Port Harcourt Rivers State” was carried out by me; that this is my original work and that it has not been submitted wholly or in part for the award of a degree in any institution.

 

Name of Student: … Emmanuel Ethel Ifeyinwa. Signature/Date…………………..

 

Confirmation by Supervisor(s)

 

 

Name of Supervisor (1) . Prof. L. Ottih        …. Signature/Date ………………

 

 

Name of Supervisor (2) …Dr. Jude Nwoka……. Signature/Date ………………

 

 

CERTIFICATION

Ignatius Ajuru University of Education

 

Postgraduate School

 

HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF FOOD AND BEVERAGES COMPANIES IN PORT HARCOURT RIVERS STATE.

 

By

 

EMMANUEL ETHEL IFEYINWA

The Board of Examiners certifies that this Dissertation/Thesis is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Human Recourse Management.

 

DESIGNATION                  NAME                     SIGNATURE               DATE

Supervisor (1)                      Prof. L. Ottih           .......................              ....................

Supervisor (2)                      Dr. Jude Nwoka      .......................              ....................

Head of Dept                       Dr. Jude Nwoka      .......................              ....................

Dean of Faculty                   Prof. Otamiri S. A  .......................             ....................

External Examiner             ..........................        .......................              ....................

Chairman Board

of Examiners                       ..........................        .......................              ....................

 

 

 

 

DEDICATION

This Dissertation is dedicated to the Almighty God..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to deeply appreciate the Almighty God for giving me the opportunity to be part of this programme and for His Grace to accomplish it. May His name be glorified forever.

My immense gratitude goes to my two supervisors; Prof. L. Otti for his scholarly guidance and Associate Prof. Jude Nwoka who painstakingly read through this work and made his important contributions for the success of this work, I am forever thankful to both of them.

My unalloyed gratitude goes to the Dean of the faculty, Prof. Otamini for his academic efforts and other lecturers in the faculty and department, Dr. Israel Omesi, Dr. Gloria, Dr. Barinue Victor. I also appreciate the programme Coordinator, Dr. (Mrs) N. Chukuigwe, I am also thankful to Pro. Zeb Obipi Isaac for his professional contributions towards the success of this work.

My deep appreciation also goes to my beloved husband Dcn Emmanuel Joseph Lemchi for his support and encouragement. I am equally thankful to my elder brother ACP Ezebuike Peter Ugo. for his financial assistance and also Mr. & Mrs. Chibuzor Adira for their support.

I specially thank my children, Emmanuel Arnold Wachukwu and Emmanuel David Chinua for their immense support and encouragement.

Finally I extend my greetings to the following of my friends and course mates; Mr Andrew Adohwo, Mrs. Bose Alonge – David, Mrs Stella Daso, Fred, Tayo F. Akinpelumi, Gloria Uhuka and Josephine John-Africa who did the typesetting of this work. You are all amazing and may God bless you all.

 

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the implication of Human capital development practices on the competitive advantage of food and beverage firms in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The study employed a randomly generated sample size of 178 respondents across 20 registered food and beverage firms in Rivers State. The data analysis technique used was the regression analysis which was cross-validated using the correlational analysis. The study discovered that; all employed dimensions of Human capital development which were; development programme, mentoring, and coaching significantly predicted the measures of competitive advantages such as; cost leadership, product differentiation, and product quality. Overall, it was observed that only development programme and product differentiation showed an insignificant relationship, while other employed dimensions of human capital development showed a positive and significant relationship with the measure of competitive advantage. The findings of the study upheld the baseline theories of human capital such as the labor theory and the human capital theory which explain that, when firms engage in activities that add to the value of employees and organizational members, this leads to a massive increase in the capability and motivation of these employees, who in turn are fortified to contribute to the organization’s stride towards attaining a competitive advantage amongst its competitors. In light of these findings, the study recommended that; the organization through the Human resource managers should ensure that proper diagnosis, determination, and assessment of human capital needs in the organization, and there should be constant research on developments in the organizational environment that requires training and upgrading and improving the skills of employees. This will allow the right training and development programs to be mapped out and implemented to keep the employees abreast with the developments. Conclusively, the study observed that Human capital development is a critical predictor of the level of competitive advantage of food and beverage firms. This shows that, the better the sampled food and beverage firms are in terms of development programme provision, mentoring, and coaching, the likelier they are to amass employees who will be satisfied, loyal and committed to the services provided by the food and beverage firms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover page                                                                                                                              i

Title page                                                                                                                                ii

Declaration                                                                                                                             iii

Certification                                                                                                                            iv

Dedication                                                                                                                               v

Acknowledgements                                                                                                                vi

Abstract                                                                                                                                   vii

Table of contents                                                                                                                    viii

List of figures                                                                                                                         xii       

List of tables                                                                                                                           xiii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study                                                                                            1

1.2       Statement of Problem                                                                                                 8

1.3       Conceptual Framework                                                                                               14

1.4       Aim/Objectives of Study                                                                                           15

1.5       Research Questions                                                                                                    16

1.6       Research Hypotheses                                                                                                  17

1.7       Significance of the Study                                                                                           18

1.8       Scope of the Study                                                                                                     18

1.9       Unit of Analysis                                                                                                          19

1.10     Geographical Scope                                                                                                    19

1.11     Operational Definition of Terms                                                                                 20

CHAPTER 2:   REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1       Conceptual Review                                                                                                     23

2.1.1    Concept of the Human Capital Development                                                             24

2.1.2    Dimensions of Human Capital Development                                                             32

2.1.2.1   Development Programme                                                                                         33

2.1.2.2. Mentoring                                                                                                                  47

2.1.2.3. Coaching                                                                                                                    56

2.1.3    Concept of the Competitive Advantage                                                                     63

2.1.4    Measures of the Competitive Advantage                                                                   74

2.1.4.1   Cost Leadership.                                                                                                       74

2.1.4.2   Product Differentiation                                                                                             88

2.1.4.3   Product Quality                                                                                                         96

2.1.5    Concept of Technology as moderating variable                                                         110

2.2       Operational Conceptual Framework                                                                           124

2.3       Theoretical Review                                                                                                     132

2.3.1.   Labour Theory                                                                                                            132

2.3.2    Human Capital Theory                                                                                                134

2.3.3    Learning Theory                                                                                                         139

2.3.4    Reinforcement Learning Theory                                                                                 139

2.3.5    Cognitive Learning Theory                                                                                         141

2.4       Empirical Review                                                                                                       143

2.5       Knowledge Gap                                                                                                          151

2.6       Summary of Literature Review                                                                                  153

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1       Research Design                                                                                                         157

3.2       Research Population                                                                                                   158

3.3       Sample/Sampling Techniques                                                                                     160

3.4       Instrumentation and Measurement                                                                             162

3.5       Validity of Instrument                                                                                                163

3.6       Reliability of Instrument                                                                                            163

3.7       Administration of Instrument                                                                                     164

3.8       Method of Data Analysis                                                                                            165

CHAPTER 4: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

4.1       Data Presentation, Analysis and Results                                                                    166

4.1.1    Questionnaire distribution and collection statistics                                                    166

4.1.1    Demographic Analysis                                                                                                168

4.1.1.1  Gender Distribution of Respondents                                                                         168

4.1.1.2:  Marital Status Distribution of Respondents                                                             170

4.1.1.3   Age Distribution of Respondents                                                                             171

4.1.1.4   Distribution of the Educational Qualification of Respondents                                172

4.1.1.5    Distribution of Respondents by Number of Years Spend in their Respective

   Organization.                                                                                                           173

4.1.2    Univariate Analysis                                                                                                    174

4.1.2.1  Human Capital Development                                                                                    174

4.1.2.1.1   Development Programme (DPR)                                                                          175

4.1.2.1.2   Mentoring (MNT)                                                                                                  180

4.1.2.1.2   Coaching (CCH)                                                                                                    185

4.1.2.2   Competitive advantage                                                                                             190

4.1.2.2.1   Descriptive Statistics of Cost leadership (CL)                                                      190

4.1.2.2.2   Descriptive Statistics of Product differentiation (PD)                                           195

4.1.2.2.3   Descriptive Statistics of Product Quality (PQ)                                                      200

4.1.3    Bivariate Analysis                                                                                                       209

4.1.3.1.     Model Utility                                                                                                         209

4.1.3.2.     Hypotheses Testing (Bivariate and Multivariate Analysis)                                   210

4.1.3.2.1   Hypothesis One                                                                                                     210

4.1.3.2.2   Hypothesis Two                                                                                                     211

  1. Hypothesis Three                                                                                                  213
  2. Hypothesis Four                                                                                                    214
  3. Hypothesis Five                                                                                                    216

4.1.3.2.7.  Hypothesis Seven                                                                                                  218

4.1.3.2.8.  Hypothesis Eight                                                                                                   220

4.1.3.2.9.  Hypothesis Nine                                                                                                    221

4.1.4    Multivariate Analysis                                                                                                  222

4.1.4.1.     Hypothesis Ten                                                                                                      222

4.2       Discussion of Findings                                                                                               223

4.2.1:   Ho1: Relationship between development programme and cost leadership.               223

4.2.2:   Ho2: Relationship between development programme and product differentiation.   224

4.2.3:   Ho3: Relationship between development programme and Product Quality.              224

4.2.4:   Ho4: Relationship between Mentoring and cost leadership.                                       224

4.2.5:   Ho5: Relationship between Mentoring and product differentiation.                          225

4.2.6:   Ho6: Relationship between Mentoring and Product Quality.                                     225

4.2.7:   Ho7: Relationship between Coaching and cost leadership.                                        226

4.2.8:   Ho8: Relationship between Coaching and product differentiation.                            226

4.2.9:   Ho9: Relationship between Coaching and Product Quality.                                       226

4.2.10  Ho10: Technology as a moderating variable                                                               227

4.3       Summary of Findings                                                                                                 227

4.3.1    Summary of Observations on Demographic Characteristics of Respondents           227

4.3.2    Summary of Findings on Univariate Analysis                                                           227

4.3.3    Summary of Findings on Multivariate Analysis                                                       228

CHAPTER 5:

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONTRIBUTION TO SCHOLARSHIP

5.1       Summary                                                                                                                     230

5.2       Conclusions                                                                                                                 232

5.3       Recommendations                                                                                                      232

5.4       Contribution to Knowledge                                                                                        233

5.5       Limitations of the Study                                                                                             233

5.6       Implication of the study/contribution to knowledge                                                  234

5.7       Heuristic model and its explanation                                                                           237

5.8       Areas for Further Research                                                                                         238

REFERENCES                                                                                                                    239

APPENDICES                                                                                                                      260

 

 

 

 

 

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1:       Conceptual framework showing the relationship between Human Capital

Development and Competitive Advantage.                                                   14

Figure 1.2        Diagram showing the five competitive forces of the market and industry    64

Figure 3.1:       Operational Conceptual Framework Showing the relationship between

the dimensions and the measures                                                                    124

Figure 4.1:       Gender of Respondents                                                                                  169

Figure 4.2:       Marital Status of Respondents                                                                       170

Figure 4.3:       Age Distribution of Respondents                                                                   171

Figure 4.4:       Distribution of the Educational Qualification of Respondents                      172

Figure 4.5:       Number of Years in the Organization                                                             173

Figure 5.1:       Heuristic Model                                                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1:      Target Population of Executives of 20 selected Food and Beverages Firms

in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.                                                                         159

Table 3.2.      Population Allocation                                                                                       161

Table 3.3:      Mean Reliability Test Output                                                                          163

Table 3.4:      Individual Reliability Test Output                                                                   164

Table 4.1:      Total Questionnaire Distribution Statistics                                                      166

Table 4.2:      Distribution of Questionnaire across the Food and Beverage Firms               167

Table 4.3:      Gender of Respondents                                                                                    169

Table 4.4:      Marital Status of Respondents                                                                         170

Table 4.5.      Age of Respondents                                                                                         171

Table 4.6:      Highest Educational Qualification of Respondents                                         172

Table 4.7:      Number of Years in the Organization                                                              173

Table 4.8:      Descriptive Statistics of Development Programme (DPR)                              175

Table 4.9:      The firm organizes relevant workshop often.                                                  176

Table 4.10:    The workshops are usually well organized and have impacted on my

knowledge.                                                                                                       177

Table 4.11:    The firm organizes conferences and encourages staff to attend.                     177

Table 4.12:    The conferences we attend have strong connotations on how job functions

and performances.                                                                                            178

Table 4.13:    We are usually trained and oriented in the course of our daily work.             179

Table 4.14:    The on-the-job method I receive are applicable to my job and have helped

me work better.                                                                                                179

Table 4.15:    Descriptive Statistics                                                                                        180

Table 4.17:    The firm's managers avails me personal guidance during my daily task.        181

Table 4.18:    I feel comfortable in seeking advice from my managers.                                182

Table 4.19:    The management provides adequate information to enable me feel

motivated towards my immediate objectives.                                                  182

Table 4.20:    I find it easy to ask for directions when I am confused.                                  183

Table 4.21:    The support given in my place of work helps me to achieve tasks quickly

and easily.                                                                                                         184

Table 4.22:    There is strong moral support in my organization to enable employees

focus.                                                                                                                184

Table 4.23:    Descriptive Statistics                                                                                        185

Table 4.24:    There is a free flow of communication in the organization.                            186

Table 4.25:    We are allowed one-on-one interactions with our managers.                          187

Table 4.26:    We are usually tutored and made to achieve goals in group.                           187

Table 4.27:    We have a sense of relationship based on the firm’s policies.                         188

Table 4.28:    We are always directed to participate in activities that will enable us climb

higher in the career ladder.                                                                              189

Table 4.29     We usually get promoted when we merit it.                                                    189

Table 4.30:    Descriptive Statistics                                                                                        190

Table 4.31:    The firms actively eliminates waste within the production process.               191

Table 4.32:    The nature of the firm's production shows judicious use of firm’s resources

and improved efficiency.                                                                                 192

Table 4.33:    The firm has been able to keep the cost of production to the barest

minimum                                                                                                           193

Table 4.34:    Overhead costs are been pruned while quality is being maintained.               193

Table 4.35:    We are affiliated with our raw materials.                                                         194

Table 4.36:    We get our supplies at a very acceptable price.                                               195

Table 4.37:    Descriptive Statistics                                                                                        195

Table 4.38:    Our products can do what immediate competitors’ products cannot.              195

Table 4.39:    Our competitors have very few products like ours, in terms of

Functionality                                                                                                    197

Table 4.40:    The visual design of our product looks more appealing than substitutes.       198

Table 4.41:    We work to ensure our product appears differently.                                       198

Table 4.42:    We invest a lot in product development and it pays off.                                 199

Table 4.43:    We roll out newer products or variants often.                                                 200

Table 4.44:    Descriptive Statistics                                                                                        200

Table 4.45:    Our products are rarely returned due to defects.                                             201

Table 4.46:    We strive on the reliable nature of our products.                                             202

Table 4.47:    The firm's product can be consumed for a long period of time.                      202

Table 4.48:    We build our products to be edible for a very long time.                                203

Table 4.49:    We adhere to food safety standards.                                                                204

Table 4.50:    We have approvals for every product of ours.                                                 204

Table 4.61:    The company processes are well articulated and function together seamlessly

as a result of the technology in use.                                                                 205

Table 4.62:    There is little disruption in the flow of operations due to the employed

technology.                                                                                                       206

Table 4.63:    We have access to adequate information via the use of communication technologies.                                                                                                 206

Table 4.64:    We keep our internal and external environment up to date with our current products and development via information technology.                               207

Table 4.65:    The quality of our services have been greatly improved with the use of

advanced technologies.                                                                                    208

Table 4.66:    We use various technological models in ensuring a fool proof product

delivery to our customers.                                                                                208

Table 4.67:    Model Summary                                                                                               209

Table 4.68:    Summary of Regression Output of the Relationship between Development

Programme and Cost leadership                                                                       210

Table 4.69:    Correlations Between Employees training And Cost leadership.                    211

Table 4.70:    Summary of Regression Output of the Relationship between Executive

programme and Product differentiation                                                           212

Table 4.71:    Correlations Between Development Programme and Product differentiation   212

Table 4.72:    Summary of Regression Output of the Relationship between Development

programme and Product Quality                                                                      213

Table 4.73:    Correlations Between Development Programme and Product Quality           213

Table 4.74:    Summary of Regression Output of the Relationship between Mentoring

and Cost leadership                                                                                          214

Table 4.75:    Correlations Between Mentoring And Cost leadership                                   215

Table 4.76:    Summary of Regression Output of the Relationship between Mentoring and Product differentiation                                                                                      216

Table 4.77:    Correlations Between Mentoring And Product differentiation                       216

Table 4.79:    Correlations Between Mentoring And Product Quality                                  218

Table 4.80:    Summary of Regression Output of the Relationship between Coaching and

Cost leadership                                                                                                 219

Table 4.81:    Correlations Between Coaching And Cost leadership                                     219

Table 4.82:    Summary of Regression Output of the Relationship between Coaching and

Product differentiation                                                                                     220

Table 4.83:    Correlations between Coaching And Product differentiation                         220

Table 4.84:    Summary of Regression Output of the Relationship between Coaching and

Product Quality                                                                                                221

Table 4.85:    Correlations Between Coaching And Product Quality                                                222

Table 4.86:    Moderating effect of Technology on the relationship between competitive advantage                                                                                                223

Table 5.1:      Showing the variables and correlation coefficient                                           235

Table 5.2:      Summary of findings                                                                                        238

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