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.

Cold seeps are areas of high biomass in the deep-sea, the impacts of these food-rich environments upon the sediment community is unknown in the Gulf of Mexico. The structure and function of benthic communities was investigated at food-rich and food-limited sites on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope. Cold seeps were richer in macrofauna densities and total sediment respiration, but were poorer in biomass and taxa diversity than normal slope communities. Decreased diversity is seen at most chemosynthetic communities and suggests a competition for resources. The spatial extent of these results at seeps is unknown and may be a localized, bioenhancement effect caused by seeping fluids.

<p>The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to develop and to test the Perceived Health & Sport Participation Profile (PHSPP) Questionnaire; (b) to examine the relationship between athletes’ perceived health, goal orientation, self-esteem, physical self perception and sport satisfaction. The main theoretical framework used in this study is the Perceived Health & Sport Participation model (PH&SP) (Stambulova, Johnson, Lindwall & Hinic, 2005). A package of five questionnaires was completed by 139 competitive athletes representing different types and levels of sport. The data treatment involved descriptive statistics, correlation, factor, and regression analyses performed with the SPSS. A test-re-test was also performed on the PHSPP questionnaire with 30 subjects. </p><p>The study confirmed major parts of the PH&SP-model and its link to some established concepts and theories, e.g., athletic identity and goal orientation. Factor analyses of the PHSPP resulted in eight extracted factors explaining 61.46% of the total variance of the questionnaire with alpha values between 0.71 and 0.89 for all the factors. Test-re-test reliability appeared as satisfactory. Regression analyses showed that social influences on athletes contribute more to unhealthy than to healthy sport participation. Analyses also confirmed that healthy sport participation contributes to satisfaction with health and sport participation, and unhealthy sport participation contributes to dissatisfaction with health and sport participation. The results are discussed in relation to the corresponding literature and the PH&SP-model.</p><p>Key words: competitive athletes, perceived health, social influences, sport satisfaction.</p>

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.

ABSTRACT The new century has provoked the liberalization of the world economy and market globalization. International marketing has opened the borders for all countries, which can compete with the same competitive tools, increasing the rivalry among them. This thesis deals with the wine sector and the changes that this sector has suffered in previous years, due to the entrance of new producer countries and the recession that has been produced by European wines, called “Old World” producers. In this study we will make an analysis of the Swedish wine market, describing how the different players act; from consumers to the special system of alcohol distribution that is controlled by the government, all the way to the producers and kinds of wine that compose the market. Among the different wine producers we will make a thorough study of the Spanish case, given that we come from Spain, where the wine industry has a special relevance. Furthermore, Spain is one of the most important wine exporters to Sweden, but in the last years it has suffered a small decrease in its market share. So apart from studying the current situation of the wine sector in Sweden and how consumers perceive the wine of “Old World” countries, such as France, Italy and Spain and “New World” countries, such as Australia, Chile and South Africa, our main objective is to make some strategic recommendations in order to improve the situation for Spanish wine. The study will focus on a quantitative research through a self completion questionnaire, measuring the main features of wine (quality, price, nationality, etc.) and also on different theories that compose the marketing and strategic fields.

Background: Firms are today competing for educated and qualified people within the IT-industry, due to the high business activity. Firms require new employees to have both a formal education and relevant work expe-riences. Newspaper articles state that IT-companies have difficulties finding qualified employees and that they also see this shortage of competencies as the most prominent hinder to economic growth. To handle this shortage are an increased amount of companies starting structured training activities for their new employees, which by general terms is called trainee programs. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to do an explorative study of compa-nies in the Swedish IT-industry, to see if and why a trainee program could be a source of competitive advantage. Method: A qualitative approach has been applied when collecting data. Four small case studies were made by interviewing top managers and col-lecting company related information. The companies had diverse sizes and different experiences from trainee programs. The data was analyzed with the Resource-based view as a guiding theory applying the VRIN framework. Conclusion: By doing the studies three value adding aspects was found. They were staffing/recruitment, marketing and, organizational learning and development. Within the resource-based views boundaries were: recruitment and staffing found to be a source of at best tem-porary competitive advantage, the same conclusion applies for trai-nee program as a marketing tool. Organizational learning and de-velopment could be seen as a source of competitive advantage due to the complex impact a trainee program has to an organization. To summarize the above mentioned; trainee program could be a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Three obstacles for implementing trainee programs were found; feeling of being to small, short-term thinking and the lack of time.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to develop and to test the Perceived Health & Sport Participation Profile (PHSPP) Questionnaire; (b) to examine the relationship between athletes’ perceived health, goal orientation, self-esteem, physical self perception and sport satisfaction. The main theoretical framework used in this study is the Perceived Health & Sport Participation model (PH&SP) (Stambulova, Johnson, Lindwall & Hinic, 2005). A package of five questionnaires was completed by 139 competitive athletes representing different types and levels of sport. The data treatment involved descriptive statistics, correlation, factor, and regression analyses performed with the SPSS. A test-re-test was also performed on the PHSPP questionnaire with 30 subjects. The study confirmed major parts of the PH&SP-model and its link to some established concepts and theories, e.g., athletic identity and goal orientation. Factor analyses of the PHSPP resulted in eight extracted factors explaining 61.46% of the total variance of the questionnaire with alpha values between 0.71 and 0.89 for all the factors. Test-re-test reliability appeared as satisfactory. Regression analyses showed that social influences on athletes contribute more to unhealthy than to healthy sport participation. Analyses also confirmed that healthy sport participation contributes to satisfaction with health and sport participation, and unhealthy sport participation contributes to dissatisfaction with health and sport participation. The results are discussed in relation to the corresponding literature and the PH&SP-model. Key words: competitive athletes, perceived health, social influences, sport satisfaction.

Abstract Electrodeposited Copper Foil (ED Foil) is the most essential conductive material to PCB. With the recession of electronic industry and the appearance of Internet Economy Bubble for printed circuit board (PCB) industry, PCB industry slowed down its productivity around 2000 and the ED Foil industry in Taiwan had to face the vicious circle as the supply exceeds the demand. As for America, because of the declination of the industry, it is now almost out of the ED Foil industry which means that the global chief city of the field has changed from the States to Japan. However, with the high production costs and labor expenses, Japan is now suspending the enlargement of productivity, Therefore, the productivity of Taiwan till 2005 already ranked the top one in the world. Unfortunately, we are now facing the biggest competitor, China, who has tried enthusiastically to attract our ED Foil and PCB companies to move to his land, especially it has aimed the ED Foil industry as his top target to enkindle. This research has consulted several diverse documents from inside and outside Taiwan through the analyses of industrial structures, ¡§Diamond System¡¨ and ¡§SWOT Analysis¡¨ to have a clear understanding towards the construction of Taiwan¡¦s ED Foil industry and its ¡§competitive advantages¡¨. Owning these accomplished advantages as the base, we can come out the cooperative strategies for ED Foil industry¡¦s future and its ¡§Anti Competition Policy¡¨ according to the ¡§scenarios¡¨. We deeply hope that with these devices, we can strengthen the industrial¡¦s efficiency in our ED Foil¡¦s industry and at the same time, our status in this field can remain competitive around the world. The research found out that in ED Foil industry¡¦s area, the early players monopolized the market and twisted the market¡¦s efficiency at the same time. Therefore, those early players got the chance to earn a huge sum of money and as a result, some potential competitors joined the market to share the benefits. Besides, because of the rising concept of globalization among the mega electronic companies, more and more module and component companies are willing to be localized to correspond to the change. Simultaneously, the demand of both PCB and ED Foil has started to increase in Asia; therefore, the ED Foil industry in Taiwan is getting more and more prosperous because of the favorable geographical position. Moreover, high performing and large-sized facilities are adapted to produce high quality and low cost merchandizes efficiently to enhance the competitiveness in the industry. Therefore, the chain that connected with the downstream industry has become more completed and moreover, the bunching effect can be elaborate thoroughly. According to the research, we have discovered that there are many uncertainties within the operation of Taiwan¡¦s ED Foil industry such as the slight increase of the demand in Taiwan and the exports are overly centered on Hong Kong and China. Other concern like the percentage of the fixed prime cost is excessively high matters the efficiency of the productivity and as a result, a price war comes out easily because of the supply exceeds the demand. In the meantime, we have come out with the conclusion that the government should actively help the integration of the industry¡¦s future development. And we suggest that the ED Foil industry in Taiwan should take the co-opetition policy as follows: 1. The buying-associations that share the supplementary values of the recycling copper wires and R&D-associations can share the R&D cost in the area of the newly applying development will be erected to largely reduce the prime costs. Furthermore, an information exchange center will be provided for those associations to utilize others¡¦ useful experiences. 2. The business cooperative operations either with the same upstream or downstream companies all necessarily needed to be constructed. Those united cooperation such as Mergers & Acquisitions should be promoted within industries, including investments. These strategies will accelerate the development of the business. 3. New and prosperous markets such as Thailand and Vietnam need to be explored to disperse our export markets to decrease our dependency on China. 4. Complementary relationship and proper division of labors should be built up within cross-Strait without making other vicious competitions.

In this research, the case company is by originally shipyard which make small fish boat, with fast development of the deep-sea fishery in Taiwan, the technology and producing can also the fast promotion. After the 21st century along with global sea environmental protection consciousness, the fishery policy adjustment causes 50% sales reduction. The case company inevitably is facing the traditional market reducing, pondered the future will manage direction and goal. This research in faces in the process in view of the document company which the market transforms, how creates the competitive advantage, this will study the conclusion summary as follows to show. 1. Is insufficient to when itself brand well-knowingness to sell in the market, using the seller develops the full quantity production line will causes the production and the technical personnel grow stably. 2. The domestic market is small, the marking strategy is important for the international market; the company should positively carry out and adjust the company resources. 3. Carries out the company to organize to reform, establishes the perfect organization system, expands and service promoting in order to help the company. 4. At present positively develops the full quantity production line and the dealer, long-term establishment brand and stable growth.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the foundation of Taiwan¡¦s corporate structures and the driving force behind Taiwan¡¦s economic development. The economic miracle in the past could be attributed to the high proportion (97.8%) of small enterprises in Taiwan (2005). Therefore, how small and medium enterprises use human resource management to obtain organizational competitive advantages is the motivation behind this research. High-performing and potential SMEs¡¦ practices of human resource management may be beneficial to the learning and referencing of domestic enterprises. Thus, this study focuses on enterprises which received the National SMEs Award from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and enterprises listed as ¡§small but beautiful, small but rich¡¨ on the Feb 2006 issue of CommonWealth Magazine. Through in-depth interviews, this study attempted to qualitatively induce and analyze the core practices involved in human resource management and the practices developed under and applied to various situations. Through literature review and interviews with six high-performing SMEs in Taiwan, the following results were obtained: 1.The analysis of the human resource management measures currently adopted by SMEs showed that human resource management and organizational competitive advantages are correlated. Human resource management measures are influential to human resource competence, organizational core competence, and organizational competitive advantages. 2.From a universalistic perspective, SMEs¡¦ core practices of human resource management include: sharing of operation results with employees, providing a strict recruitment procedure and valuing employees¡¦ cultural adaptation, offering highly-competitive salary, valuing cultivation of professional competence, integrating performance, salary, and development, and providing open communication channels. 3.From a contingency perspective, we probed into the SMEs¡¦ practices of human resource management developed under and applied to various contexts. The analysis of the outstanding SMEs showed that human resource management measures that enterprises have focused on to obtain competitive advantages may vary with practical contexts. Organizations can thus react and adapt to the dynamic environment and maintain or elevate their competitive advantages.