The research problem addressed in this study was to identify the generic strategies that small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME’s) are required to implement in order to achieve competitive advantage in the highly competitive global automotive market. Markets have merged into one huge global marketplace, increasing the competitive forces on all the participants in the automotive markets. Strategies to achieve competitive advantage has changed from the traditional domestic strategies to that of strategies required for global competitive advantage. This has created challenges for SMME’s to attain competitive advantage essential in the fast-changing global markets. The East Cape Motor Industry Cluster (ECMIC) is the heart of the SA automotive industry with three of the major automobile manufacturers having their assembly plants located in the Buffalo and Nelson Mandela Metropoles. A significant number of component manufacturers and their suppliers serve these manufacturers, as well as the other automobile manufacturers located elsewhere in South Africa. Many of these component manufacturers and suppliers are SMME’s. The need to become globally competitive is thus critical for SMME’s in the region. This study investigates the generic strategies that SMME organisations are required to implement in order to achieve competitive advantage in the ECMIC, and based on this and the empirical study that seeks opinion from management of SMME firms in the ECMIC, a model of generic strategies to create competitive advantage is developed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:10854 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | De Beer, Lloyd |
| Publisher | Port Elizabeth Technikon, Faculty of Management, Business Administration |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MBA |
| Format | xii, 113 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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