The present study investigated whether cluster potentials could be identified in the geographical area within the boundaries of Samsun province, and if identified, how such a potential could be promoted through corresponding support measures. Development of policy recommendations for promotion of identified cluster potential was the principal goal of the study. The course of the study was characterized by a cluster-based policy-making process in the policy environment, i.e. Samsun province. The process includes a descriptive part, i.e. cluster analysis, and a prescriptive part, i.e. determining policy goals and designing policy instruments. In the literature review, a guide to the field study was developed by review of various approaches to cluster concept / common features of clusters and the competitive advantages these give rise to / various practices in cluster-based policy development, and various cluster analysis methods. The field study starts with the initial identification of need for policy intervention, at which stage the rationale for pursuing a cluster-based policy in the specific conditions of Samsun and Turkey was discussed. The &ldquo / clusters as sectors&rdquo / approach was utilized in the identification of region&rsquo / s (potential) clusters and selection of the cluster as the subject of analysis and policy development. The analysis of industrial sectors in Samsun&rsquo / s economy was followed by selection of the target sector via employing various criteria assessing the importance of these sectors in terms of value added to the regional economy, and the clustering potential. Accordingly, furniture sector was selected, and the agglomeration of furniture sector enterprises in Kutlukent locality was identified as the potential cluster to be the subject of analysis and policy development. Following the identification of the potential cluster, the descriptive part was completed by second-stage micro-level analysis of the identified potential cluster, by which detailed information about the potential cluster was presented. At that phase, cluster potential of the structure was assessed by examining the elements in cluster value and production chain / public and private business support infrastructure / the flow of materials and goods in the chain / untraded relationships between the elements / characteristics of enterprises and workforce / and innovation performance. This comprehensive in-depth analysis of the cluster provided the required information to identify the specific needs of the cluster for cluster-based policy intervention. In the last part of the thesis, i.e. prescriptive part, cluster-oriented policy recommendations were developed including the determination of policy goal and the design/selection of policy instruments. The necessary information was collected by two-stage expert interviews, and by overall scan of the enterprises involved in the cluster via enterprise survey, which was realized in interviews with all of the enterprises. Six experts and 283 enterprises participated in the study. The results of the analysis showed that, while Kutlukent furniture cluster had some features, which are common in effective cluster models, the cluster lacks some critical features, which are crucial for effective functioning of a successful cluster. Hence, Kutlukent furniture cluster was defined as a &ldquo / potential&rdquo / cluster, which should be promoted by utilizing the existing potentials and strengths, and by addressing the weaknesses and obstacles identified in the analysis of the cluster, via appropriate cluster-oriented policy measures, which were proposed in the prescriptive part of the policy-making process. By these measures, the elements of Kutlukent potential cluster would be able to realize competitive advantages associated with clustering as in successful cluster models.

This thesis aims identifying the sources of competitive advantage of the TUrkish clothing and cement industries with respect to the European Union following the methodology of the Diamond Framework, introduced by Porter (1990), which is based on the theory of competitive advantage. The methodology is modified in order to include the effects of Turkey&#039 / s integration process to the European Union on the industries. Using this methodology, this study assesses the sources of competitive advantage of the Turkish clothing and cement industries by evaluating the industries&#039 / factor conditions, demand conditions, firm structure, strategy and rivalry and the role of the government and European integration process. the main idea of this study is that both industries take their advantage from basic factor conditions. While the role of Turkey&#039 / s integration process to the EU is more effective on the clothing industry, it stays limited on the cement industry.

The dissertation involves an investigation into the circumstances of international competitiveness and how it is pursued by firms from different sugar producing and marketing nations. Understanding of competitiveness has primarily been pursued in terms of economic variables and market conditions. The roles of the government, the socio-cultural-political context in international business, and their effects on competitiveness have largely been ignored. This study integrates perspectives from strategic management, the resource-based view of the firm, and international business to propose a conceptual framework of international competitiveness. The work advances understanding of competitiveness in international business in two ways. First, it develops a conceptual framework that captures the socio-political element of a nation's industry and the crucial role it plays in achieving international competitiveness. Second, it combines firm, industry, strategy, and socio-political influences. Those are involved in a multi-level hierarchical process between firms, industry and the nation that effectively generates competitiveness. The dissertation employs a qualitative method of comparative analysis between Australia, Brazil and the European Union, which are the three dominant sugar producing and exporting economies in the world. A series of propositions are presented on the four identified influences on international competitiveness. How firms from different nations pursue these is highlighted. After considering the varied approaches for attaining international competitiveness, implications for further research and for theory, policy and practice are outlined.

This thesis aims identifying the sources of competitive advantage of the Turkish clothing and cement industries with respect to the European Union following the methodology of the Diamond Framework, introduced by Porter (1990), which is based on the theory of competitive advantage. The methodology is modified in order to include the effects of Turkey&#039 / s integration process to the European Union on the industries. Using this methodology, this study assesses the sources of competitive advantage of the Turkish clothing and cement industries by evaluating the industries&#039 / factor conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries, firms structure, strategy and rivalry and the role of the government and European integration process. The main idea of this study is that both industries take their advantage form basic factor conditions. While the role of Turkey&#039 / s integration process to the EU is more effective on the clothing industry, it stays limited on the cement industry.

Οι αλλαγές των τελευταίων ετών όπως εκφράζονται από την αλματώδη- συνεχή τεχνολογική ανάπτυξη και τη διεθνοποίηση των αγορών διαμόρφωσαν ένα νέο τοπίο για τις επιχειρήσεις και τα κράτη. Η επιβίωση-εξέλιξη των επιχειρήσεων εξαρτάται κατά κύριο λόγο από το πόσο ανταγωνιστικές είναι και μπορούν να γίνουν σε ένα πιεστικό περιβάλλον όπου το ρίσκο για υιοθέτηση νέων τεχνολογιών/καινοτομιών είναι κρίσιμο και αναγκαίο για τη σταθερότητα και το μέλλον τους. Η εργασία λοιπόν αφορά την ανάλυση όλων των παραγόντων στη διαμόρφωση της ανταγωνιστικότητας στον ευρωπαϊκό και ελληνικό χώρο και το πώς επηρεάζουν οι νέες τεχνολογίες/καινοτομίες τις επιχειρήσεις στη δημιουργία ισχυρού ανταγωνιστικού πλεονεκτήματος. / The changes of the last few years, as they are expressed from the huge-continuous technological development and the globalization of the markets, created a totally new environment for the enterprises and nations. The survival and the development of the enterprises mainly depend on the following fact: how much competitive the enterprises are and would be in a pressing environment where the risk for adopting new technologies and innovations is crusial and necessary for the stability and the future of the enterprises. Consequently, this master concerns on the analysis of all the factors that contributed in the formation of competitiveness in Europe and in Greece. In addition, it also concerns on how the new technologies/innovations influence and form a strong competitive achievement.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-12T20:32:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Final Mestrado Antonio Carlos.pdf: 527718 bytes, checksum: d6207c29bbf031d2f06e819094ac80a2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-11-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present study aims to identify whether or not there is a correlation between using financial lines for export by small and medium companies, and its level of competitiveness. The Atletic Way company was analyzed for this study, a medium sized company located in the city of Joinville, state of Santa Catarina. The work began with the construction of the theoretical fundamentation, indispensable to give support to the research, being used the methodology proposed by Ferraz et al. (1997) that sees competitiveness as: the managerial factors, administration, innovation, production and human resources; also the structural factors, market configuration of the industry, regime of incentives; and the sistemics factors, as macroeconomics, political-institutional, infra-structure and international. There are very few research material found in this area, mainly when it aims businesses depending on finance policies to export, and also the difficulties that small and medium Brazilian companies face whenever they need a specific financing to export, which harms this sector in the international market. The study signals the low investment in this sector. / O presente trabalho tem por objetivo geral identificar se há correlação entre a utilização de linhas de financiamento para exportações pelas pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs) e o seu nível de competitividade, sendo utilizado como estudo de caso a empresa Athletic Way empresa industrial de médio porte, localizada no município de Joinville/SC. O trabalho se iniciou com a construção da fundamentação teórica, indispensável para dar sustentação à pesquisa, utilizando-se a metodologia proposta por Ferraz et al. (1997), que analisa a competitividade segundo seus fatores determinantes tais como: os fatores empresariais (gestão, inovação, produção e recursos humanos), os fatores estruturais (mercado, configuração da indústria, regime de incentivos) e os fatores sistêmicos (macroeconômicos, políticoinstitucionais, infra estruturais e internacionais). Tal estudo foi motivado pela pouca bibliografia existente na área, principalmente quando se leva em conta o financiamento para empresas vinculadas à exportação e reconhecida dificuldade das pequenas e médias empresas brasileiras em contrair linhas de financiamento específica à exportações, o que vem prejudicando sobremaneira uma maior inserção deste segmento no mercado internacional. O estudo sinaliza pelo baixo investimento nesse setor.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:52:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SuelyXS.pdf: 2751671 bytes, checksum: 4c71733d0a50d2008a8f6ffed3f7cb14 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-04-10 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / This work aims to promote design aspects into furniture Small and Medium Enterprises (SME s) at Rio Grande do Norte State. The final outcome will be an increasing on their competitiveness as well as consider design as key strategic aspect for their business. As a consequence, the results are based on two SME companies from the furniture sector located at Natal/RN. The study is based on a literature research followed by a management diagnosis for each company. The diagnosis was base don interviews with the entrepreneurs and their employees as well as meetings, participant observations and document analysis. Based on this analysis, specific aspects were implement in order to boost the production line as well as the product development process (PDP) and the development of a prototype. The results have indicated some limitation of these companies regarding their low technological on their production line, poor management and work skills as well as low perception of design as a competitive tool. Regardless these results, it was observed that design has brought an important contribution for cultural changes within companies as well as for the development of better quality and competitive products / O objetivo desta pesquisa consiste em realizar a inser??o do Design nas micro e pequenas empresas (MPEs) de m?veis do estado do Rio Grande do Norte no intuito de torn?-las mais competitivas e difundir a cultura do design como ferramenta estrat?gica de neg?cios. Desta forma, o trabalho tem sua forma??o baseada em estudo de caso realizado em duas MPEs do setor moveleiro na cidade de Natal no Estado do Rio Grande do Norte. Visando atingir os objetivos, se fez uso de uma pesquisa explorat?ria atrav?s de levantamento bibliogr?fico em literatura pertinente. Em seguida foi realizado um diagn?stico organizacional nas duas empresas que foi norteado por algumas t?cnicas como por exemplo: entrevista com os empreendedores e com funcion?rios, reuni?es, observa??o participante e an?lise de documentos pr?-existentes. Atrav?s dos resultados do diagn?stico, se prop?s ? realiza??o de atividades pr?ticas atrav?s de a??es pontuais no ambiente produtivo, bem como a elabora??o de projeto de desenvolvimento de produtos (PDP), e fabrica??o de prot?tipo utilizando-se os conceitos de design, objetivando disseminar na cultura das empresas a import?ncia de se desenvolver produtos inovadores e orientados para o mercado. Os resultados demonstraram as limita??es dessas empresas quanto ? sua estrutura produtiva, ? baixa capacidade gerencial, baixa qualifica??o de m?o-de-obra e o pouco entendimento da import?ncia do design como diferencial competitivo. N?o obstante, verificou-se que a inser??o do design p?de contribuir para uma mudan?a cultural nessas MPEs, e conseq?entemente, para o desenvolvimento de produtos com mais qualidade e competitivos

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:52:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DinaraLMSC.pdf: 1007636 bytes, checksum: 64fa304ef8289d8d27d2760da528ffcb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-09-01 / This article presents a study on the research of the factors that affect the competitiveness of cheese produced in a craft in the Serid? of Rio Grande do Norte in the perception of rural producers. His theory is based on factors of competitiveness and definitions of craft production. This research was performed in the important area of production and marketing of cheeses from the state. The methodology used was exploratory research descriptive type survey. The research field of 213 returned questionnaires validated. those interviewed were rural producers of artisanal cheese, with properties distributed in the districts located in the region. The results showed the production of artisanal cheese in Serid? / RN's main points of difficulty to compete: the great marketing in the informality, workforce has low skills and education, has little technical assistance, low acceptance by technological innovations and absence of integration between producers which creates low productivity and qualification of the production chain / Este artigo apresenta um estudo sobre a investiga??o dos fatores que na percep??o dos produtores rurais afetam a competitividade do queijo produzido de forma artesanal no Serid? do Rio Grande do Norte. Para tanto, traz seu arcabou?o te?rico estruturado nos fatores que influenciam nas diversas formas de competir e nas defini??es de produ??o artesanal. Esta pesquisa foi desenvolvida em importante regi?o de produ??o e comercializa??o de queijos artesanais do Estado. A abordagem metodol?gica utilizada foi de pesquisa explorat?ria descritiva com a condu??o de um levantamento do tipo survey. A pesquisa de campo obteve 213 question?rios v?lidos, cujos entrevistados foram produtores rurais de queijo artesanal, que possuem suas propriedades distribu?das nos munic?pios localizados na regi?o. Os resultados mostraram que na percep??o dos agricultores, em rela??o ao n?vel de competitividade do queijo produzido de forma artesanal, o setor agroindustrial de produ??o artesanal de queijo no Serid?/RN tem pontos de gargalo em alguns aspectos a considerar, sendo os principais: a grande comercializa??o na informalidade, m?o-de-obra tem baixa qualifica??o e escolaridade, tem pouca assist?ncia t?cnica, baixa aceita??o por inova??es tecnol?gicas e aus?ncia de integra??o entre os produtores o que gera baixa produtividade e qualifica??o da cadeia produtiva

abstract: Nowadays ports play a critic role in the supply chains of contemporary companies and global commerce. Since the ports' operational effectiveness is critical on the development of competitive supply chains, their contribution to regional economies is essential. With the globalization of markets, the traffic of containers flowing through the different ports has increased significantly in the last decades. In order to attract additional container traffic and improve their comparative advantages over the competition, ports serving same hinterlands explore ways to improve their operations to become more attractive to shippers. This research explores the hypothesis that lowering the variability of the service time observed in the handling of containers, a port reduces the total logistics costs of their customers, increase its competiveness and that of their customers. This thesis proposes a methodology that allows the quantification of the variability existing in the services of a port derived from factors like inefficient internal operations, vessel congestion or external disruptions scenarios. It focuses on assessing the impact of this variability on the user's logistic costs. The methodology also allows a port to define competitive strategies that take into account its variability and that of competing ports. These competitive strategies are also translated into specific parameters that can be used to design and adjust internal operations. The methodology includes (1) a definition of a proper economic model to measure the logistic impact of port's variability, (2) a network analysis approach to the defined problem and (3) a systematic procedure to determine competitive service time parameters for a port. After the methodology is developed, a case study is presented where it is applied to the Port of Guaymas. This is done by finding service time parameters for this port that yield lower logistic costs than the observed in other competing ports. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Industrial Engineering 2011

Competir no mercado atualmente se mostra como um grande desafio para as empresas. Além de fatores de desempenho tradicionais como qualidade e confiabilidade, a inovação vem se tornando fundamental em um processo de diferenciação de produtos no mercado. O design pode ser considerado uma ferramenta estratégica para a busca da inovação, porém, percebe-se que seu conceito ainda não é bem compreendido pelas organizações. Assim, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo desenvolver um sistema de indicadores para avaliar a competitividade empresarial através de indicadores de desempenho da gestão do design. Ela se insere no Projeto ICD – Inovação, Competitividade e Design – que busca propor diretrizes para aumentar a competitividade empresarial através do design e da inovação. O trabalho foi realizado em cinco empresas desenvolvedoras de produtos participantes do projeto. Para cumprir os objetivos propostos foram aplicados diferentes procedimentos metodológicos. Partiu-se da busca pelo entendimento do que as empresas entendem por competitividade, através de um grupo focal e aplicação de um questionário. Então se buscou uma compreensão da relação entre competitividade, design e inovação por meio de entrevistas com especialistas do meio acadêmico. Com esse entendimento foi elaborado um workshop para construção e seleção de indicadores, que contou com a participação das cinco empresas. Verificou-se que é possível avaliar a competitividade empresarial a partir de um sistema de indicadores baseados em cinco categorias: resposta ao consumidor, eficiência, inovação, qualidade e resultados. / Competing in the market nowadays can be considered a great challenge for companies. As well as traditional performance factors such as quality and trustworthiness, innovation is becoming essential in the product differentiation process. Design can be considered a strategic tool in the search of innovation, but it is perceived that its concept is not yet fully comprehended by organizations. In this context, the present research aims to develop an indicator system to assess organizational competitiveness through performance indicators of design management. It is a part of Project ICD – Innovation, Competitiveness and Design – whose goal is to propose guidelines to increase companies’ competitiveness through design and innovation. The research was done in five product developing companies which participate in the project. To achieve the proposed goals, a series of methodological procedures was applied. The first step was to understand what the organizations see as competitiveness through focus groups and questionnaire. Then it was necessary to comprehend the relation between competitiveness, design and innovation, using interviews with experts from the academy. With this understanding, a workshop for indicator construction and selection was elaborated, counting with the participation of the five companies. It was verified that it is possible to evaluate competitiveness with an indicator system based in five categories: customer responsiveness, efficiency, innovation, quality and results.