Innovation Strategies, First Mover Advantage and Performance in the Context of the Microfinance Sector: A Review of Literature

The prevailing business environment is erratic and unreliable. The accomplishment of trade in such environment is determined by an organization’s capability to adjust and respond to environmental variation. Innovation strategies offer a strategic option that can be used to align organization’s assets and competencies with prospects in the external environment in order to heighten survival and long term success of an enterprise. Execution of such a strategic option is likely to result in strategic moves that will register impacts in the market which requires decision makers to consider the timing of their moves that operationalize the strategy in the market. The extant literature has pursued discussions on the construct of innovation strategy separately from that of first mover in spite of the implied indications that the two can be integrated into a strategic management phenomenon that will influence the firm’s performance. This study provides a review of existing theoretical and empirical literature on the perspectives connected to innovation strategies as a strategic option, first mover advantage in the phenomenon leading to performance in the context of microfinance setting. The applicable theories are reviewed, concepts and their operational indicators identified and matched against existing empirical work and nascent knowledge gaps identified. The study finally, suggests a theoretical framework appropriate for progressing knowledge in the field of study together with the associated inferences for future research.