This dissertation aims to answer the question 'What drives the competitiveness in Mozambique’s cashew processing factories in the post-restructuring period?'. In so doing, the study considers medium-scale cashew processing factories in the province of Nampula as unit of analysis and select the micro- and meso-level of competitiveness in order to identify main factors driving competitiveness. This decision does not underestimate the impact of factors at other levels on competitiveness, but rather is an attempt to develop a framework that is financially and technically feasible, and simplifies the perception of competitiveness by recognizing relevant determinants at the micro- and meso-level. To address the research question of this study, insights and findings are drawn from an integrative framework linking theories from International Trade, Strategic Management, Economic Sociology and Economic geography. This integrative framework focuses on the process of value creation and value capture underlying four pillars: creation, competition, co-opetition and collective search. Findings of this study have shown that Mozambican cashew industry lost competitiveness in both RCN and cashewkernel market,and efforts made in order to restructure thecashew processing sector have not been sufficient to recover a relevant position in international markets. Because of the greater value that large, whole and white cashew kernels represent to buyers, the raw material, labor, process and technology that produce and deliver these quality kernels are the main factors driving competitiveness. In all these areas, cashew processing enterprises in Nampula face constraints. Further efforts need to be undertaken in order to maintain the modest participation in international markets and to aspire to rescue a larger market share.:Acronyms xvii
1 Introduction
1 1.1 Background ..........................................1
1 1.1.1 Country Profile ..........................................1
1 1.1.2 Historical Context................................................................ 4
1.1.3 Cashew Sector Development Context ................................................ 8
1.2 Problem Statement ………………………………………………… 11
1.2.1 Location of the factories ………………………………………………………. 12
1.2.2 Technology, Quality and Efficiency of Production……………………………. 13
1.2.3 Supply Chain Management and Financial Costs …………………………….15
1.2.4 Processing Scale and Flexibility………………………………………………. 15
1.2.5 Export Tax of Raw Cashew Nuts ……………………………………….. 16
1.2.6 Characterization of Factories in the Post-restructuring Period……………. 17
1.3 Significance of the Research …………………………………………… 18
1.4 Objectives ……………………………………………………. 19
1.5 Research Questions …………………………………………………….. 19
1.6 Research Methodology……………………………………………………… 20
1.7 The Scope of the Research ……………………………………………………… 20
1.8 Thesis Structure ……………………………………………………………….. 20
2 Theoretical Framework
2.1 From Efficiency to Competitiveness ...............................................................27
2.2 The Concept of Competitiveness ..................................................................28
2.2.1 Generalities about Competitiveness …………………………………………29
2.2.2 Units of Analysis ………………………………………………………………30
2.2.3 Levels of Analysis ……………………………………………………………33
2.3 Competitiveness in International Trade Theory ……………………………36
2.3.1 The Concept of Comparative Advantage ..................................................36
2.3.2 The Sources of Comparative Advantage ……………………………………37
2.3.3 Summary of International Trade Literature ……………………………………44
2.4 Competitiveness in Strategic Management Theory ……………………………46
2.4.1 The Concept of Competitive Advantage ......................................................46
2.4.2 The Sources of Competitive Advantage ………………………………………48
2.4.3 Summary of Strategic Management Theory …………………………………57
2.4.4 Integrative framework for Competitive Advantage ……………………………58
2.5 Competitiveness in Economic Geography Framework .................................60
2.5.1 Summary of Economic Geography ..............................................................62
2.6 Competitiveness in Economic Sociology Framework ...................................63
2.6.1 The Classical Economic Sociology ..............................................................63
2.6.2 The New Economic Sociology ....................................................................64
3 Methodological Framework
3.1 Research Design ............................................................................................69
3.1.1 Type of Research .........................................................................................69
3.1.2 Sample selection ..........................................................................................69
3.1.3 Data Collection Method ...............................................................................70
3.2 Research Model……………………………………………………………………71
3.2.1 Selection of Units and Levels of Analysis …………………………………71
3.2.2 Defining Competitiveness ............................................................................73
3.2.3 Proposing a Definition of Competitiveness ..................................................73
3.2.4 Identifying Sources of Competitiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.2.5 Categorizing the Sources of Competitiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4 The Cashew Industry
4.1 Generalities about Cashew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.1.1 The Cashew Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.1.2 Products derived from Cashew Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.1.3 The Cashew Nut Value Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.1.4 Primary processing: The Extraction of the Cashew Kernel . . . . . . . 84
4.2 Dynamics of the Cashew Industry Worldwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.2.1 Global Production of Raw Cashew Nuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.2.2 Global Trade in Raw Cashew Nuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.2.3 Global Processing of Raw Cashew Nuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4.2.4 Global Trade in Cashew Kernels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5 agents of competitiveness in mozambican cashew processing enterprises 103
5.1 The Mozambican Cashew Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.1.1 Classification of the Cashew Processing Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.1.2 Spatial Distribution of Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.1.3 Installed Capacity vs Used Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.1.4 Mozambican Cashew Value Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.2 Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.2.1 Factor Endowment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.2.2 Primary Value-adding Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.2.3 Value-adding Support Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.2.4 Intra-firm Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.2.5 Dynamic Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.2.6 Demand Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.2.7 Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.3 Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.3.1 Market Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.4 Co-opetition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.4.1 Inter-firm Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.4.2 External Economies of Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.4.3 Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.5 Collective Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.5.1 Meso-level Institutions and Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.5.2 Meso-level Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6 summary and conclusions
6.1 Summary of findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.1.1 The position of Mozambique in global cashew nut market . . . . . . . 149
6.1.2 Agents of Competitiveness in Mozambican Cashew Processing Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.2 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
appendix 163
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:17146 |
| Date | 12 February 2018 |
| Creators | Sarabia Palacio, Milena Maria |
| Contributors | Universität Leipzig |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion, doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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