1. Title ICT as a source of competitive advantage: a case of a large commercial bank in Kenya by Lawrence Okungu and Jeremiah Kagwe Key words ICT, Competitive advantage, Introduction Research Philosophy The theoretical foundation of the study Research Problem Research Objectives Research methodology Findings Discussion and conclusion

2. Introduction The banking Industry has faced numerous challenges such as strict government controls, competition, political instability and others At independence the industry faced a new legal framework of registration requirements and other regulations In the 1970s the industry faced new challenges of competition from government owned banks and more privileged non bank financial institutions Other challenges included controls on lending and savings interest rates The 1990s liberalization brought new challenges such as globalization The 21 st century has brought in new challenges of money laundering, terrorism and corruption The innovative use of ICT can help banks deal with some of the challenges and achieve competitive advantage

3. The theoretical foundation of the study This research is based on the resource based view (RBV) The theory posits that organizations achieve superior performance because of the resources they have Organizations that have resources which are rare, imitable and non substitutable These valuable resources include human and ICT

4. Research Problem Research has established that the use of ICT leads to improved performance However these studies have generally been done at a general level ( surveys) Very few studies if any have been done on how specific organizations including banks have improved performance through the use of ICT Organizations and banks have different resources, capabilities and structural designs Hence each bank uses ICT differently as per its resources structures and capabilities It is important to specify the specific ICT asset used by KCB and the specific actual and quantified benefits arising from the use of each ICT asset

5. Research Objective To find out how the bank uses ICT to achieve competitive advantages

6. Research method The study is based on a case study data collection instrument was an interview guide Respondents were eight managers in the various departments in the bank Data was analyzed using content analysis

7. Findings The use of ATMS, Internet, personal computer and telephone all led to improvement in performance in sales, profit, customer satisfaction The study found out that the use of the above ict instruments led to a 16 per cent increase in profitability an 11 per cent increase in sales turnover and a non quantified increase in customer satisfaction

8. Discussion and conclusion The findings of the study are consistent with other researches However the study has quantified the benefits arising from the use of each ICT asset in the bank This will enable the bank determine the actual benefits that arise from an investment in each ICT asset and can therefore carry out a cost benefit analysis for each ICT investment Banks have different human resources and internal structural environmental situations and the innovative use of each ICT asset by each bank determines the actual benefit from that asset Many more studies can be done on individual banks to determine the innovative capability of each bank in the use of each specific ICT asset

9. Implications for knowledge addition The study has established that each element of ICT can influence a specific measure of financial performance

10. Implications for policy and practice Establishing the specific benefit for each ICT asset hence banks can undertake a cost benefit analysis for each investment option

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