ANIH John David
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Administration and Management
Rivers State University Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
OPARA Bright C.
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Administration and Management
Rivers State University Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
ADIELE Kenneth C.
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Administration and Management
Rivers State University Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Abstract
This study investigated the influence of electronic data interchange (EDI) on competitiveness of oil and gas companies in Rivers State. The study proxied competitiveness with cost reduction, innovativeness and flexibility. The study whose population consisted 28 oil and gas companies, adopted a survey research design. The study took a census due to the small size of the study. The general manager, marketing manager, procurement manager, logistics manager and business development manager of each of the 29 oil and gas firms were purposively selected to provide data for the study. Measures of central tendencies and measures of dispersions were used in at the primary level of analyses; while the P(r) was used to test the correlation between EDI and proxies of competitiveness. The results showed that EDI has positive significant connection with cost reduction, innovativeness and flexibility, hence competitiveness of oil and gas companies in Rivers State. The study concludes that EDI informs competitiveness of oil and gas companies in Rivers State; and recommends that management of oil and gas companies in Port Harcourt should implement EDI systems as panacea to improved competitiveness.
Keywords: Competitiveness, cost reduction, electronic data interchange, flexibility, innovativeness.