International Competitiveness At Macro, Meso And Micro Level

1. High pressure for local adaptation combined with low pressure for lower costs would suggest what type of international strategy: A. global B. multidomestic C. transnational D. overall cost leadership 2. Foreign direct investment includes the following form of entry strategy: A. licensing B. franchising C. joint ventures D. exporting 3. According to Michael Porter, firms that have experienced intense domestic competition are A. unlikely to have the time or resources to compete abroad. B. most likely to design strategies aimed primarily at the domestic market. C. more likely to design strategies and structures that allow them to successfully compete abroad. D. more likely to demand protection from their governments.

In addition, the internationalisation is the strategy to occupy the foreign market step by step. Also, the porter’s competitive advantages theory is to analysis the strategies of global business. They could divide to three strategies: over cost leading, diversity, and market focus strategy (Passemard& Calantone, 2000). The cost leading strategy focus on establish efficient scale production facility and minimize the research and advertising cost. The diversity strategy focus on introduce some unique product in whole industry. But, this strategy will with a high cost price. The focus strategy is attack of a particular customer group or specialist regional market, its purpose to design the service for a particular target. Consequently, the companies need to consider the internal and external factor condition, such as: factor condition, demand condition, related and supporting industries condition, and firm strategy and rivalry. They are called diamond system. This dynamic system gives the company a standard to measure theirs advantage and disadvantage before they enter foreign market. Moreover, the specific advantage in Internationalisation of Production is give companies a new choose for exhausted market (Strange,S. 1992). In an international environment, the companies will face more uncertain and unequal condition than home market, therefore the companies need keep the attention of more factors:

Over the period of study, the relative strength in the Peripheral South diminished as the Republican Party became more competitive in the Deep South. Over time, one should see both the national and state indexes increase with the state party index lagging behind the national party index. While this is far from definitive, it supports the findings of some scholars who say that the increase in Republican Party competitiveness started at the national level and went to affect the competitiveness of elections to lower level political offices. A major reason that the state score index lags behind the national index is that the state index includes state legislative offices (and not votes as we have for the other offices included in the MPI) which

There are three basic methods to competing with other companies in the foreign market: exporting, licensing, and investment. Each one of these methods has their own pros and cons. Exporting works best if it is a physical good, licensing is better for intangible items, and investment is more beneficial if it involves transferring an entire enterprise to another country. If these methods are used correctly, competition between foreign competitors decreases because of the level of business that we as a country, draw in.

The term competitiveness defines the ability of a region to export more than its imports while including all “terms of trade” to reflect government legislation and import barriers. In other words, according to the world competitiveness report, competitiveness is “… the ability to design, produce, and market goods and services, the price and non- price characteristics of which form a more attractive package than those of competitors.” (Pg3.) Each nation has different competitiveness level, which relies on multitude factors such as; raw materials, innovative technologies, energy prices, the type of economy, legislations, and the exchange rate fluctuations. Nevertheless, the prosperity of countries depends on the nation’s competitiveness status.

When one country is able to be more efficient in producing one good or service compared to a different country, a comparative advantage has occurred. This usually takes place when a country is able to focus and specialize in a product or service so they will have a stronger dominance in what they do. The United States have exceeded in creativity and innovation, which accounts for the advantage in technology (Macroeconomics, 24-38). The U.S. also has a trade surplus in services and is the forerunner in the worlds’ service exports (Global Trade in Services, 84).

Comparative advantage is determined by the “price” of one good in terms of the other good within each country.

The country can maximize their wealth by putting the resources in the most competitive industries. Government created comparative advantage rather than free trade because now easier moves the production processes and the machines into countries that can produce more goods (Yeager & Tuereck, 1984). However, many countries now move to new trade theory suggests the ability firms to limit the number of competitors associated with economic scale (reduction of costs with a large scale of output) (Krugman, 1992). The comparative advantage occurs when two-way trade in identical products, it will useful where economic scale is important, but it will create problem with this model. As a result, government must intervene in international trade for protection to domestic firms (Krugman, 1990)

To begin with, Chapter two covers three important aspects of the business world which are competitiveness, strategy, and also productivity. These particular aspects are very important for any company to succeed in the world of business. With that being stated, any type of firm such as a manufacturer or a service provider, they must employ these three aspects because they play an important role in growing revenues. For an organization to even be considered successful, they must have a competitive advantage which leads to a strategy that will meet the company’s goals, while having the knowledge-ability to help produce the goods and services in a cost effective manner. Also, it is known that most organizations have a single state called the Mission Statement. The mission statement basically summarizes these three aspects of a company. One question that the Mission Statement should address is, “What level of business are we in?” This mission statement is categorized as the absolute basis for the organizational goals.

In the article “The Competitive Advantage of Nations” Michael Porter describes a diamond shaped relationship of forces that define a country’s potential for being competitive in a specified industry. The four points on the diamond representing the different forces are: factor conditions; demand conditions; firm strategy, structure and rivalry; and related and supporting industries. According to Porter, the four points apply pressure to each other resulting in a national

There have been many different reactions towards Porter’s theory on how nations ought to compete. Some responses were validated while others rebutted his theory. Firstly, the positive response will be discussed before focusing on the criticisms of Porter’s theory. Oz (2002) implemented Porter’s Diamond model to analyse the competitive advantage of five Turkish industries and the outcome was favourable and thus validated Porter’s theory. For example, the uncompetitive Turkish automobile industry resulted in uncompetitive companies, while the presence of demanding buyers and hence intense local rivalry in Turkish construction and leather-clothing industries pushed the companies to innovate and become globally competitive. The Turkish findings by Oz thus validated Porter’s theory that indeed, competitive industries of a nation are inclined to cluster together.

The country has an interesting competitive advantage to analyze, and it can be related to Porter’s articles. Indeed, there are different theories shown in Porter’s articles

10 2.2.1. The Doubled Diamond vs. a Single National Diamond ................................. 11 2.2.2. The Role of the Multinational Enterprises (MNE’s) as Empowering Developing Countries rather than Constraining their Growth.................................. 12 3. Research Setting: Why Use Mexico to Study Porter’s Diamond? ............................... 17 4. Research Questions....................................................................................................... 19 5. Methodology ................................................................................................................. 20 5.1. Positioning the International Competitiveness of the Industry.............................. 22 5.2. Addressing the Research Questions....................................................................... 23 6. Results........................................................................................................................... 28 6.1. The Competitiveness of the Automobile Industry in Mexico................................ 28 6.2. Positioning the Industry as Internationally Competitive ....................................... 29 6.3. Using Porter’s Diamond to Assess Sources of Competitive Advantage in the Automobile Industry in Mexico: 1993-2003. ............................................................... 39 6.3.1. Factor

The first section of the paper discusses the concept of comparative advantage and the factors that determine trade. The second section of the paper focuses on analyzing the sources of comparative advantage of national economies. The paper continues with an analysis of the international movement of production factors. There is also a section that addresses the economic effects of tariffs and non tariff barriers.

Any country should use porter diamond theory of national advantage. It's designed to help understand the competitive advantage nations. It suggests that the national home base of any organizations are playing a supportive role in shaping the size or scoop to which it is likely to achieve advantage on a global scale. This home base provides basic factors, which support organizations from building advantages in international competition. Porter classifies four determinants: Factor Condition, Diamond Condition, Relatives & supporting and Structure, strategy & Rivalry. Egypt government acts to catalysts to improve Egypt position in a globally competitive economic environment. They found that they can create new factors such as skilled labor and high technology (Porter M., 1990). Porter's diamond model suggests threat there are inherent reasons why some nations are more competitive than others on an international market. Another factor that influence in competitive advantages such as the policies that put by government. One of the most influencer policies is (FDI) Foreign direct investment