O setor agrícola brasileiro gera saldos positivos à balança comercial do Brasil, e a fruticultura segue no mesmo ritmo. Dentre as frutas produzidas no Brasil, a uva é uma das que mais impactam na balança comercial, tendo em vista que é amplamente exportada e importada. Este cenário só se tornou possível com a abertura de mercado na década de 90, e, assim, o Brasil pôde se tornar mais competitivo no mercado nacional e internacional. A competitividade é importante para a economia, seja de um país, de um setor ou de uma empresa. No presente trabalho, então, foi realizada uma análise setorial da competitividade da viticultura, fundamentada na produtividade, nos aspectos tecnológicos e no ambiente institucional. Para a análise regional brasileira foi utilizada a técnica de triangulação na metodologia deste trabalho: pesquisa qualitativa (entrevista com produtores das principais regiões produtoras de uva de mesa do Brasil); análise estatística por meio de Modelos Lineares Generalizados de dados secundários (preço nas regiões produtoras de uva de mesa) obtidos no banco de dados do Cepea; e análise documental (com base nas legislações, regras e outros documentos disponíveis). A partir disso foi constatado que o Vale do São Francisco (BA/PE) é a região brasileira mais competitiva, visto que investe mais em tecnologia, tem gestão empresarial (enquanto as outras são marcadas pela agricultura familiar) e consegue se sobressair nas questões de comercialização. Além disso, no Brasil, o ambiente institucional, de um modo geral, não gera grandes vantagens competitivas para nenhum produtor de uva - a exceção são as fortes cooperativas do Nordeste. Para a análise da competitividade internacional, além da análise documental com vistas ao comércio internacional, foram feitas estatísticas descritivas com dados de preço, produção, produtividade, exportação, importação e consumo aparente de uva de mesa do Brasil, Chile e Itália. Os dados foram obtidos nos bancos de dados do IBGE, MDIC, Odepa, Eurostat e USDA. No geral, Chile e Itália têm ambiente institucional mais forte que o Brasil para o comércio internacional de uva de mesa. Mesmo assim, a competitividade internacional brasileira cresceu nos últimos anos frente a Chile e Itália. Assim, pode-se concluir que mesmo com ambiente institucional desfavorável, tanto no mercado interno quanto no externo, o Brasil conseguiu avançar na competitividade entre os anos analisados neste trabalho. Isso se deve, sobretudo, aos investimentos ocorridos na principal região brasileira - o Vale do São Francisco. / The Brazilian agribusiness generates profits to the trade balance of Brazil, and the fruit sector follows the same rhythm. The table grape is one of the fruits that impact the trade balance, because it is widely exported and imported. This scenario was only possible to the market opening in the 90s, and thus Brazil was able to become more competitive in domestic and international markets. Competitiveness is important to the economy, whether of a country, of a sector or a company. Thus, a sectorial analysis of the viticulture competitiveness was conducted, based on productivity, technological and institutional environment. In this research, it was used triangulation technique in the methodology to conduct the Brazilian regional analysis: qualitative research (interview with producers of the main producing regions of table grape of Brazil); statistical analysis using Generalized Linear Models of secondary data (price of table grape) obtained in Cepea database; and documental analysis (based on the laws, rules and other documents available). Based on this, it was found that the São Francisco Valley (BA/PE) is the most competitive region in Brazil. This region invests more in technology, has business management (while the others regions are tagged by family farmers) and stands out in the marketing. In addition, in Brazil, the institutional environment, in general, does not generate competitive advantages for grape growers - the exception is the strong cooperatives located in Northeast. The international competitiveness was conducted by descriptive analysis of statistics - price, production, productivity, export, import and apparent consumption of table grape in Brazil, Chile and Italy. Also, a documental analysis of international trade was conducted. Data were obtained from the IBGE, MDIC, Odepa, Eurostat and USDA databases. Overall, Chile and Italy have a stronger institutional environment to international trade of table grapes than Brazil. Anyway, the Brazilian international competitiveness has increased in recent years compared to Chile and Italy. Thus, it can be concluded that even with unfavorable institutional environment, both domestically and external, Brazil was able to advance in competitiveness during the years analyzed in this work. This is mainly attributed to the investments occurred in the main Brazilian table grape region - São Francisco Valley.

Lack of visibility of the assets in a product supply chain compromises attempts to optimise supply chain management. Increasing the visibility of these assets presents a relatively unexplored frontier in operations and supply where organisations can create competitive advantage through the opportunities asset visibility offer. This research aims at investigating the key capabilities of asset visibility specifically those associated with returnable transport assets that travel across supply chains carrying material and products e.g. cages, boxes, trays, trolleys and pallet bins. In addition, how these capabilities may influence supply chain visibility and firm performance in a way that might lead to sustainable competitive advantage is examined. To achieve these objectives, the research develops a two-stage model that is theoretically grounded in the extended resource-based view. Philosophically, the research adopts a critical realist approach using abductive logic. Methodologically, a sequential exploratory strategy for data collection is implemented. A qualitative, indepth site-based case study supported by field expert interviews was conducted as a pilot study. The pilot study findings refined the initial conceptual model derived from literature and informed the next stage of the research. The quantitative phase focused on refining the factors constituting asset visibility capabilities and then testing the relationship between these capabilities and supply chain visibility, performance and sustainable competitive advantage. Key findings are that asset visibility capabilities are shaped through three key capabilities: (1) an asset management capability formed by both core technological aspects related to tracking and tracing technology, and non-technological ones focusing on logistic-related capability; (2) a complementary technological capability comprising of IT infrastructure for supply chain integration; and (3) a complementary nontechnological capability represented through three sub-capabilities: (a) supply chain process integration; (b) focal firm-3PL relational orientation; and (c) internal firm integration. The research findings prove a positive relationship between asset visibility capabilities and supply chain visibility. In addition, a positive relationship between these capabilities and sustainable competitive advantage through the mediated effect of supply chain visibility and firm performance, is confirmed.

This research examines the relationship between places and firms and how this contributes to competitive advantage. This is a vitally important topic at present, as businesses are adjusting to the dislocations of Brexit, trade wars, nationalism and other reactions to globalisation. Firms need a place strategy more than ever. How should resources be located in relation to markets, suppliers, skilled workers, laws, incentives, infrastructure, quality of life and the myriad other factors affecting business? Global connectivity presents so many options but also so many threats. Despite its importance, this is a subject that is relatively poorly served by existing literature and theory. A review of strategic management work relating to competitive advantage, including reflections on Chandler, Ansoff, Porter, Barney, Mintzberg, and many other authors, reveals an emphasis on management and organisation but a virtual blindness to the role of place. A review of economic geography literature related to competitive advantage, including consideration of work from Marshall to Maskell, Storper, Sassen, Glaeser, Florida and many others, shows an emphasis on place but a relative neglect, with only a few significant exceptions, for the view from the firm and the role of individuality in organisation and management. The two disciplines show a striking complementarity in their omissions. This interdisciplinary study draws on the wide range of existing material to build a new and comprehensive model of the place-firm relationship (the PFR) that brings convergence to the thinking around competitive advantage. This model is then tested and adjusted through empirical research leading to recommendations for firm strategy, government policy, academic theory and future research. The empirical study is based on the most important business sector in the UK in terms of size, growth and impact, namely financial services, and is set in the top two centres of activity in the UK for this sector outside London, namely Edinburgh and Glasgow. At the heart of the work is a series of 29 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with senior executives in these cities investigating how firms see the contribution of place to their competitive advantage, a necessarily qualitative methodology to unravel the complexity and contradictions inherent in the existing theory. The interviews have been transcribed and coded and analysis of the feedback has been used to both refine the new model and to derive insights about how it works in practice. The results of the application of the model show that the PFR is highly complex but also that it can be rigorously assessed and the key factors contributing to competitive advantage can be identified and prioritised. These factors can be grouped under the main themes of the ease of doing business, talent, quality of life, local networks and legacy. It is clear that every business enjoys a unique PFR but that the individual organisational profiles can be aggregated in line with the main themes to show agglomeration and cluster effects around places, industry sectors, types of business and other groupings. In the case of the financial services businesses tested here, the availability of talent stands out as the most important contribution to competitive advantage firms receive from places, but this is closely linked to other factors in a web of connections. Also evident is the pragmatic co-existence of competition and collaboration in firm strategies and practice and the emergence of different but overlapping cluster types, particularly one underpinned by legacy in Edinburgh and the other underpinned by government intervention in Glasgow. This research gives business managers a tool and methodology with which to assess and compare how place contributes to their competitive advantage. It thus gives an added vital dimension to most strategic decisions and particularly to considerations about relocation, expansion, off-shoring, and geographical dispersal and diversification. The agility necessary for businesses to respond to the current turbulent political and economic environment must extend to managing place and place-firm relationships in the more systematic way proposed in this work in order to maintain and extend competitive advantage. This model can also help development agencies and national and local government to interpret the competitive advantages of places as seen by firms and to make comparisons with other places. It can give an informed basis for discussion with businesses and point to where improvements can be made in line with the place objectives and overall development plans. The new model gives a common framework for different parties to reconcile their objectives to mutual benefit. Last but not least, the research presents academics with possibilities for more interdisciplinary work to address gaps in theory about one of the most pressing issues of the day. The model opens the door to new research opportunities to test its applicability in different combinations of places, businesses and industry sectors, for different types of agglomeration and cluster formation. This is an opportunity for the academic research community to furnish the objective, sound and informed view necessary to support potentially controversial decision making in these uncertain times.

Between 2010 and 2014 there was a 25% increase in international visitors to the United States, which signifies an opportunity for leaders and managers with a global mindset to take advantage of the opportunities derived from globalization to increase competitive advantage. However, some organizations have not prepared executives and managers to operate in a global environment, which can lead to business failure. The purpose of this multicase study was to gain an understanding of what global mindset strategies hotel executives developed to increase competitive advantage. The target population consisted of the general managers, directors of sales, and directors of catering from 3 full-service hotels at two international airports in the United States who have developed and deployed successful strategies reflecting a global mindset. Porter's 5 forces model served as the conceptual framework for this study. Data sources for this study included semistructured interviews, company websites, advertisements, franchise disclosure documents, and observations. Based on coding interview transcripts, creating mind maps using software, and methodological triangulation of the data, 3 themes emerged: leverage brand resources, personalize services, and leverage staff diversity for service delivery. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to create a multiplier effect starting with increased staffing due to increased business volume and profits. The potential increase in competitive advantage may also help hotels prosper and help to ensure funds are available for the hotels to remain contributing businesses for local communities' tax revenues to benefit citizens.

Small business owners play a leading role in the United States economy by creating jobs. However, small businesses have a high failure rate, with approximately 50% going out of business during the first 5 years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the competitive advantage strategies that owners of small businesses used to sustain their businesses longer than the first 5 years. A sample of 6 small service industry business owners in Houston, TX that have been in business for 5 years or more participated in semistructured interviews. Additional data were collected from company documents and the review of artifacts related to small business success and longevity. Entrepreneurship theory provided the conceptual framework for the study. Member checking enhanced the credibility of the interpretations of the participant responses. Data were analyzed using Yin's 5 stages of coding: compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding the data. From the data analysis, 3 themes were revealed: financial capital, marketing and competitive advantages, and great customer service. Findings of this study might help owners of small businesses to ensure business growth, increase revenues, and stimulate job creation.

Significant levels of interest and organisational spending on information and communication technologies (ICT's) have triggered debate as to whether these investments are worthwhile. While there has been some acknowledgement that investments result in positive returns, little is known about how ICT's may lead to competitive advantage. This thesis starts to inform this gap, by investigating how ICT's are combined with other organisational resources in the context of an exemplar organisation. The resource based view (RBV) is used as a framework to guide this study. The RBV is an appropriate lens to guide this research due to its focus on resources and capabilities as sources of advantage. This research employs an interpretive case study design based in an organisation with a long history of innovation and success with regard to ICT's. A grounded integrated model of advantage is presented based on two distinct groupings of integrated capabilities: lifecycle and embedded foundational capabilities. The integrated model of advantage, along with key actions outlined to support such capabilities, provides researchers and practitioners with a new way of understanding ICT based advantages. In essence, this research demonstrates how the total ownership of ICT's, within the case studied, presents a potential advantage. The advantage is realised through the combination of capabilities and the inclusive approach to ICT development employed in the case organisation. The research finds support from propositions of the RBV, in that the model demonstrates sources of advantage are based on organisational capabilities which are valuable, firm specific, and socially complex. As such, the integration of capabilities evident in the integrated model of advantage is a likely source of sustained competitive advantage. This means advantages gained from the integration of capabilities are not easily imitated or competed away. Furthermore, advantages have an even greater potential to be a source of sustained advantage than any single resource or capability. The research has important implications for theory and practice. While many individual sources of advantage have been empirically examined, this research provides one of the first in-depth case studies which identify integrated capabilities. Understanding such sources of advantage will help practitioners better understand and protect key organisational capabilities to sustain or extend competitive advantages.

This thesis examines the influence of market, learning, and entrepreneurial orientation as sources of competitive advantage in fast-growth SMEs. It is taken that these three factors synergistically comprise an organization's business orientation, enhancing marketing capabilities and firm performance. In Australia, these firms tend to be emerging enterprises, usually less than 10 years of age, and comprise approximately 10% of all SMEs, contributing substantially to national revenue. Two studies (Study 1 and Study 2) were incorporated, utilizing a sequential explanatory design, which is characterized by undertaking quantitative data collection and analysis (path modelling), prior to conducting qualitative research (case studies/causal network modelling). Study 1 reveals that business orientations are significant antecedents to marketing capabilities. Accordingly, firms leverage advantages associated with a business orientation to strengthen their marketing capabilities. While superior marketing capabilities are important drivers of performance, these capabilities also mediate relationships between business orientation and performance. Without such capabilities, it appears that firm market, entrepreneurial and learning orientations provide little value to attainment of desired performance objectives. Fast growth SMEs invest in maintaining sound relationships with distributors and developing superior products/services for positional advantages. However, only product/service development capabilities contribute significantly to firm performance. Although Relationship Capabilities are related positively with Shared Vision (learning orientation) and Proactiveness (entrepreneurial orientation), this marketing capability dimension displays nonsignificant relationshi ps with performance measures. This finding suggests that even though FGF employees might have sound relationships with distributors/retailers, Relationship Capabilities are not a direct contributor to subjective measures of firm profitability, ROI, ROE, customer satisfaction, new product success, and overall marketing effectiveness, confirming that positional advantage does not necessarily lead to enhanced firm performance. In addition, marketing research, marketing management, marketing communications, and pricing are nonsignificant contributors within the context of the present hypothesized model. Study 2 extends the hypothesized model originating from Study 1. Based on an inductive analysis of case studies, qualitative findings reveal four significant qualities specific to these organizations: Leadership/CEO characteristics, human resource practices, organizational culture, and organizational climate. These characteristics can be regarded as intangible resources associated with fast-growth firms. These attributes appear to be significant antecedents to business orientation, marketing capabilities, customer value, and firm performance. Customer value features prominently. This model is also nonrecursive: firm performance sends a signal to potential employees and customers, impacting human resource related issues such as staff motivation, rewards, and recruitment. Successful firms tend to attract highly talented employees because potential staff want to be associated with winning enterprises. Information generated and disseminated from the renewal process adds new knowledge to superior organizational r esources, making the process nonrecursive. Perhaps, more importantly, Study 2 reveals that fast-growth companies seem to have an uncanny ability to remain ahead, preventing competitors from surreptitiously entering their markets. It might sound as a cliché, however, but these organizations appear to possess a commitment to customer centricity for at least some period of time, retaining customers by developing new products which continue to serve current customers as they change what they value.

<p>Nowadays, the European airline market is characterized by two major different airline business models; the full service airlines and the low cost airlines. Secondary, appeared for the first time in 1985 in form of the Irish low cost carrier Ryanair. In recent days, the European low cost market stands out through its growth potential and high competitiveness. Therefore, startup companies aiming to join the wave of success as well as insolvency of newly established airlines are part of the daily occurrence. The challenge, that established low cost airlines are faced with, is to create competitive advantages against new entrants and direct competitors under the circumstances of environmental changes. In addition to the described problem a model was developed in order to picture the situation. This paper aims to provide an answer to the specific question: How do low cost airlines use relationship marketing in order to enhance, maintain and attract new customers? The second step is to figure out how those tools affect the airlines generic strategy. The purpose of this study is to find out how low cost airlines in Europe deal with tools of relationship marketing and what are the effects those tools have on generic strategies. This thesis is based on a case study within the European low cost airlines market, with a special focus on three airlines: Ryanair, EasyJet and Air Berlin. These questions are addressed using information obtained in interviews with respondents from the airlines that were recently conducted in Brussels and Bremen by personal interviews and additionally by telephone interviews and email contact. The results show that relationship marketing tools are used in a different extent by the airlines. The authors could not find evidence that using relationship marketing tools is the single solution to compete more successfully than without. It is further argued by the authors that RM is just one aspect strengthening the generic strategy in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage.</p>

Many explanations of competitive advantage view place as a secondary factor. Organizational studies models tend to be considered aspatially, yet most are inherently geographic. It is important to consider the impact that geography has on the success or failure of an individual firm or a sector. This dissertation examines how location impacts the US farm machinery industry through an empirical analysis of Porter’s Theory of Competitive Advantage. Contributing to this empirical test are other bodies of literature including models for headquarters and research and development siting, product life cycle theory, industry life cycle theory, and green technologies as a driver of competitive advantage. The US farm machinery industry is composed of three firms: Deere and Company, Case New Holland, and the Allis-Gleaner Corporation. Theory-elaborating case study methodology, informed by archival data, publically available documents, trade show reconnaissance, and plant tours, coupled with map and content analysis allows for a deeper understanding of how geography impacts competitive advantage in the sector. Comparing findings from these geographic case studies to Porter’s results led to a new understanding of competitive advantage for mature manufacturing in a globalized economy. Previous analysis found Porter’s single diamond, which focuses on local conditions for competitive advantage, most appropriate for explaining mature industries in advanced market economies. This study found, however, that as mature industries increasingly pursue a global focus, a double diamond model, which takes into account both local and global conditions for competitive advantage, is more appropriate, even in an advanced economy. This research also found that, much like second-tier cities are desirable for headquarters and research and development siting, second-tier countries (that can provide high-skill labor at lower prices) are increasingly attractive for manufacturing operations. The need for modifications to product life cycle theory that take into account the impact of these countries as well as the effects of nationalism on manufacturing decisions in mature economies were also uncovered by this dissertation. This research demonstrates the continued importance of place to understanding competitive advantage, not only in the US farm machinery industry, but generally for mature manufacturing as a whole.

It aims at find out the shortage of Value chain activities should be improved of Chinese little recycle companies, through a comparative analysis of value chain activities of a laggard and advanced recycle company. And set the steps to identify opportunities for little recycle companies to gain competitive from low cost and add-value. Finally try to find out the most proper way though the value chain and competitive advantage to develop recycling companies ‘competitiveness. And it also gives some useful suggestions.