Alliance structural design and its influence on competitive advantage in strategic collaborations between universities and teaching hospitals in Kenya

Kenya is one of the Developing countries that are yet to attain universal healthcare goals. It targets and envisions collaborations in healthcare as being critical to the realization of the universal health goals. The general objective of the study was therefore toestablish the influence of the alliance structural design on strategic collaboration competitive advantage among universities and teaching hospitals in Kenya. This study adopted a positivist philosophy and a descriptive cross sectional research design. The study population comprised 10 universities and 10 teaching hospitals as approved, by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council, respectively. The census technique was deployed to make use of all the elements in the population with primary data collected by use of a structured questionnaire, while secondary data was collected using a document review guide. Frequencies, measures of central tendency and dispersal were used in descriptive statistical analysis while correlations, cross tabulations and ordinal logistic regression were used for inferential statistical analysis. Ordinal logistic regression helped determine the significance of relationships between the predictor and outcome variables. The study established that the alliance structurewas significant for collaboration competitive advantage. Competitive advantage was operationalized using financialoutcomes and learning and growth. Alliance structural design was a significant predictor of the financial outcome of universities (β = 1.513, p < 0.05), teaching hospitals (β = 1.518, p < 0.05) and in combination (β = 1.520, p < 0.05). Alliance structural design was also a significant predictor of learning and growth in universities (β = 1.594, p < 0.05), teaching hospitals (β = 1.231, p < 0.05) and combined (β = 1.371, p < 0.05).