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
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- Published: 22 July 2021
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
- Hypothesis Three 213
- Hypothesis Four 214
- 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