| Abstract: | The purpose of this study was to assess ethio telecom’s competitive strategy practiced to compete
in the industry it previously had monopoly over. As part of Digital Ethiopia 2025’s first major step
towards a more connected and efficient economy, the telecommunication industry monopoly in
Ethiopia ended. Following that, Ethio telecom faced an aspect of business operation it hadn’t
before due to its monopoly over the telecommunication industry, competition. The study used
descriptive survey design as it sought to describe the topic within it objectively, and data was
analyzed using statistical tools based on summarized comparisons using percentages and ratios.
The entire population was used as the sample of the study due to the amount not exceeding 100.
The target population for this study was 68 respondents from employees working in the
headquarter of ethio telecom with reasonable working knowledge on the topic of the study to give
adequate answers. The employees were a combination of managers, supervisors, experts and
specialists. As a result of competition being a recent business concept for ethio telecom, there isn’t
a proper structure of employees in a clearly defines hierarchy there to deal with it. Therefore,
great care was taken when targeting employees capable of providing good enough answers. The
research used a structured questionnaire to collect primary data. The findings of this study
indicated that ethio telecom applies combined competitive strategies of cost leadership,
differentiation and focus strategies for competition, with a more emphasis on the differentiation
strategies. The study also found out that technological, competitive, political/legal/ and sociocultural factors are main external factors whereas technological resource, financial resource
factors and reputation of ethio telecom are main internal factors that have significant influence
on the ethio telecom’s decision on formulation and selection of its competitive strategies. Based
on these conclusions of the study, the researcher recommended that ethio telecom establishes a
proper organizational structure in dealing with its competitive strategies formulation and
implementation, as well as emphasize on competitive strategies relating to customer retention
since it has almost all of the customers in the Ethiopian telecommunication industry. Moreover,
the researcher recommended that ethio telecom have monitoring and communication systems that
allows the company to observe and report any changes in the telecommunication industry for any
adjustments and prevent and mitigate any risks and negative impacts from the internal and
external factors the company faces. |
