The mediating effect of empowerment strategies on the relationship between motivation factors and sustainable competitive advantage of Iraqi Private Banks

The rapid changes in the business environment have made organizations consider the implementation of various strategies to face fierce worldwide market competition. Such a competitive situation has become increasingly challenging for many organizations, in general, and banks, in particular. In Iraqi private banks, most bank managers embrace the traditional management styles to motivate bank employees. This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of empowerment strategies (ES) on the relationship between motivation factors (MF) and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) of Iraqi private banks. The results of partial least squares (PLS) path analysis support some variables in their hypothesized direct relationships with sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). The relationships between motivation factors (MF), teamwork (TW) and organizational trust (OT) and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) are supported. However, the relationships between motivation factors (MF), participative leadership (PL), sharing information (SI) and freedom and autonomy (FA) and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) are not supported. Moreover, the analysis results suggest that empowerment strategies (ES) fully mediate the relationship between motivation factors (MF), participative leadership (PL), sharing information (SI) and freedom and autonomy (FA) and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). empowerment strategies (ES) partially mediate the relationship between motivation factors (MF), teamwork (TW) and organizational trust (OT) and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) The study advances several recommendations that can be beneficial for researchers to conduct further studies in this area as well as policymakers and managers in their efforts to enhance the competitive edge of organizations in the future.