ABSTRACT
This study examined the connection between service capacity utilization and competitive advantage of private medical service providers in the Rivers State. The survey research method was espoused for the study on a population encompassing one hundred and seventy private medical service providers. The Taro Yamane’s formula was used to arrive at one hundred and nineteen (119) medical service providers as the sample size of the study. Purposive sampling was adopted to draw one management staff from the marketing, sales and customer service units of the service providers. A 5-point likert-scale questionnaire was administered on the respondents, of which 350 copies questionnaire were returned, obtaining a 98 per cent response rate. The study adopted the Spearman’s Rank Order correlation as the test statistic. The results showed that service capacity utilization has a strong, positive and statistically significant connection with competitive advantage through cost leadership and product differentiation. The study therefore concludes that, service capacity utilization significantly drives competitive advantage of private medical service providers in Rivers State, and recommends that service capacity of private medical service firms should be tailored towards orchestrating service deliveries that enable them achieve competitive advantage. Keywords: Competitive advantage,cost leadership, product differentiation, service capacity utilization