In today's hypercompetitive and fast changing business environment, companies are increasingly under pressure to find new ways to make their business operations lean and profitable through acquiring a sustainable competitive advantage. Some essential ways of doing this are by looking for improvements in innovative ways and being more responsive to market changes. / The marine industry is no exception to these changes, and faces a similar situation. The question of how to succeed in today's rapidly changing competitive environment poses the greatest challenge for companies in the industry. This study focuses on this issue by examining how different subsets of the marine industry perceive the competitive environment and what they assess to be the possible responses to the challenges they face. / This study examines the competitive strategies of the marine switchboard industry in China, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Specifically, the research question that is asked is: how can marine electrical switchboard manufacturers gain a sustainable competitive advantage in today's fast changing marine global industry? The study begins by reviewing the related literature to define possible competitive strategies, as well as the key factors required for acquiring a competitive advantage. These are related to the marine electrical switchboard industry to see how they can best be applied. / Next, an investigation is done to ascertain the persistent and systematic similarities and differences in the competitive strategies of different players in the industry. Empirical data was gathered by using three questionnaires, which were administered by mail and through interviews. The first questionnaire targeted ship-owners and operators, shipyard executives and engineers, and marine consultants and designers. The second questionnaire was aimed at marine equipment suppliers and manufacturers, while the last questionnaire was used during interviews with shipyard executives and engineers. / Fifteen hypotheses were tested as part of the study. The overall results show that higher product quality, lower production cost, and better customer service are the three most important factors for improving competitive advantage. Interestingly, the results suggest that there are more similarities than differences in the ranking of competitive strategies in the marine industry across countries in spite of quite different composition, structure and stage of development of the marine industry in the three countries studied. Customers may not be concerned with how efficient a company is, but rather in how its internal operations impact them. It is the outside-in view that raises the issue of differentiation and it is by differentiating itself on items such as these above factors that a business achieves a competitive edge / Moreover, in order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage, firms will have to “out-innovate” the competition continuously so that the customer is the ultimate beneficiary. Beyond technological innovations, a firm's service innovations have become increasingly important. Essentially, service innovation depends on the firm's ability to evolve, collaborate and enter partnerships that effectively fulfil customer's holistic needs and thereby increase the opportunities for enhancing customer relationships. On a long-term perspective, creating an environment that successfully nurtures and maintains their relationship with their customers is one of the primary challenges faced by the management of every organization. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2005.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267424 |
| Creators | Ong, Pock Keong. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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