Disruptive Innovation New Positions Construction Capabilities and Competitive Advantage Among Digital Lenders in Kenya

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of disruptive innovation new positions construction capabilities on competitive advantage among digital lenders in Kenya. The study was guided by the disruptive innovation theory while utilizing the positivist research philosophy and a correlational research design. The target population was all the 378 C-Level executives from the digital lenders in Kenya and a census sampling method was applied to select the whole population for the study. A questionnaire was used to gather data and the data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences program. The results were analyzed using descriptive (frequencies, means and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (multiple linear regression analysis). Findings indicated that resource allocation emerged as the most influential predictor, exerting a moderate yet significant positive effect on competitive advantage (β = 0.354, t = 6.54, p < .001). Knowledge application provided a similarly strong contribution (β = 0.339, t = 5.59, p < .001), indicating that firms that actively embed new knowledge into operational routines tend to realize superior competitive advantage. Conversely, knowledge acquisition failed to reach statistical significance at the conventional five percent level (β = 0.10, t = 1.72, p = .087), implying that merely gathering knowledge without subsequent application may not translate into competitive advantage. The study concludes that digital‑lending firms in Kenya leverage disruptive new positions construction capabilities to secure a sustainable competitive advantage. The study recommends to regulators to design innovation‑friendly guidelines, such as expedited approval pathways for novel digital products and tax incentives for technology investments, that lower transaction costs and reward lenders for experimenting with new market positions.