SHAPING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR AGROECOLOGIC PRODUCTS

A competitive advantage exists when the company is able to deliver the same benefits as competitors but at a lower cost (cost advantage), or deliver benefits that exceed those of competing products (differentiation advantage). Thus, a competitive advantage enables the firm to create superior value for its customers and superior profits for itself. In order to develop a competitive advantage, the company must have resources and capabilities that are superior to those of its competitors. Resources such us patents and trademarks, proprietary know-how, reputation of the firm, brand name , are the firm specific assets useful for creating a cost or differentiation advantage and that few competitors can acquire easily . Classification-JEL: M21, O13competitive advantage, agroecologic products, cost advantage

Quality Management System-INcrease Factor of the Organizational Competitiveness

Modern organizations operate in an extremely turbulent, dynamic and unpredictable environment, which bear profound changes in relatively short periods of time and impose requirements in terms of increased economic competition and the intended performance objectives. Therefore, this paper investigates the significant increase of the weight factor on the quality of products on the market. The latter is an element of prime importance for the development of the organization. The only path to quality is an operational and advanced quality management system. This study will analyze and demonstrate that implementing such a system will give the possibility to organization to make products and services according to specifications, increase of efficiency and productivity, increase of offering capacity, reduce losses, increase staff motivation and involvement, reduce costs, increase consumer and partners confidence, improve company image on the market, increase customer loyalty and ultimately increase profit. All these factors by creating value will ensure a sustainable competitive advantage for any organization.quality, quality management system, organizational competitiveness, competitive advantage.

Emerging Forms of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Agricultural Producers

Traditional recommendations for building sustainable competitive advantages revolve around differentiating a product from the competition along attributes that are important and relevant to customers. However, strategic approaches based on such notions do not represent viable options for companies competing in commodity markets characterized by a lack of physical product differentiation. The objective of this paper is to conduct a literature review with the aim of identifying alternative approaches to creating competitive advantage that can be used even under conditions in which no differences in actual quality exist across products. This review of the literature uncovered three non-traditional strategies that provide a basis for perceptually differentiating products in the face of physical homogeneity. Agricultural producers operating in parity markets should consider these recommendations when developing strategies aimed at creating the competitive advantages that drive sales performance in the marketplace

Analysis of the potential of the R & D sector to generate a competitive advantage on a national level

Even though globalization tends to minimize the importance of national borders, there is yet a strong competition ongoing between nations. In this competition, it’s those countries that manage create and develop a series of long-term competitive advantages that eventually thrive. In the case of Romania, the R & D sector could represent a real „engine” of economic development, particularly at this stage where we can no longer rely on being competitive in terms of low labor cost. We have to focus on creating and delivering products and services of high added value which, obviously, implies having a high throughput from the R&D sector. Starting from these premises, this paper seeks to identify the impact of increasing the R&D expenses on the gross domestic product, in order to understand if this sector can truly generate a series of competitive advantages on a regional level. This link was analyzed based on the correlation factor between the two variables and the identification of the regression function. Several countries and regions have been referred to, for an increased degree of relevance of the study.creativity, competitive advantage, GDP, research and development.

The Digital Content Era

In order to become even more competitive, a partnering with other niche players is essential in achieving a competitive advantage and it enables opportunities for reintermediation. From an intermediate perspective, there are great possibilities for those who become content coordinators to enter the market. By becoming a bundler of services and products, the content coordinators will become the actors that will capture the most profit in the value web. The value creating drivers that have been identified in the business landscape of intermediates concern owning the content or owning the customer relationship. We find the possibilities of an intermediate actor, such as a content coordinator to achieve competitive advantage through strategic fit is subject to the context and the ability of creating more innovative and co-creative distribution systems. Our research shows that to have the potential of achieving competitive advantage in the value web, it is of utmost importance that the intermediate actor creates new value that has not been created yet. Reaching a critical mass is also essential to attain strategic fit and achieve competitive advantages in this business

EXPERIANTIAL MARKETING TO CREATE CUSTOMER VALUE

Development in information and communication technologies within the globalization concern to cause strategical importance of competition. So, to be successful in today’s competitive world, firms concentrated on competitive superiority gained by using information. Increase in usage of information, number of competitors and changes in customer needs and wants make the firms to adopt customer oriented marketing concepts instead of traditional marketing concepts. Because of those changes traditional marketing concepts which focus on main characteristics of the good, customer needs and situation of competitors replace its place to new marketing concepts which focus on the information, brand, communication and experience. In this new customer oriented economic environment, one of the new concepts developed to find customers in a high competitive area, satisfy and obtain their loyalty, is experiential marketing which construct sensitive relationship with the customer, attract them mentally, in short communicate and dialogue with them. Experiential marketing is creating difference by applying customers five senses with the products. Differences occur in not only the product’s benefit but also creating and presenting experience. In this study; experimental marketing which gets the customers appreciation by creating high value for them, touch their senses and mental activities is presented as a solution suggestion to the firms to be successful in the competitive environment with their rivals

Market Orientation, Competitive Advantage and Marketing Performance of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

This study aims to analyze competitive advantage as a variable that mediates the effect of market orientation on marketing performance. This research population is 113,000 SMEs (Small And Medium Enterprises) located in Malang City, which are engaged in food processing, handicrafts, and clothing business units with an observation sample of 100 SMEs. The data analysis technique used in this study is Structural Equation Modeling. The results of this study indicate that SMEs' performance will increase if they can carry out processes and activities related to creating and satisfying customer needs. Besides, market-oriented SMEs contribute to competitive advantage by creating product uniqueness, product quality, and competitive prices, ultimately affecting the performance of SMEs. In order to improve SMEs' performance, efforts must be made to develop marketing strategies, such as paying attention to market orientation, focusing on customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter-functional coordination, and developing or innovating new products

Development Of Technological Decisions On Production Of Capsulated Products Based On Dairy Raw Materials

Capsulated products – is a segment of the food industry with high rates of development in directions of creating analogues of black and red caviar, oil-fatty capsulated products, capsulated sauces, capsules, based on milk raw materials and also getting capsules with probiotic properties. It is determined, that milk is used as a “passive” recipe component (excretion of separate components, matrix for bifidobacteria) with the additional use of СаСІ2 for realizing encapsulation processes. It determines the aim of the studies – development of new technological principles and approaches to the technologies of processing dairy raw materials taking into account their chemical and technological potentials. At that there is offered to use the potential of lactocalcium of whey for realizing the encapsulation process that gives a possibility to exclude auxiliary substances, especially СаСІ2 from the technological process. There was developed the innovative plan of products, within which there is presented the conception of new products, their competitive advantages, determined the segment of users and consumers. There was elaborated the technological process of producing capsulated products, based on dairy raw materials involving secondary milk products, especially whey. It is noted, that the necessity of introducing whey is conditioned by its properties to be a donor of ionic calcium that is a condition of encapsulation process realization. There were studied the ways of the development of the technology of capsulated products, so a possibility of getting both fermented products and pasteurized ones appears at the expanse of thermostable properties of the coat of capsulated semi-products. It is determined, that the offered technological decisions allow to define directions of milk processing, to create products with high food properties and to offer products of new commodity forms – soft capsulated snack cheeses, soft capsulated dessert cheeses. It is proved, that the technological process of producing capsulated products taking into account consuming advantages provides the effectiveness of business functioning in the link “milk industry-restaurant industry-consumer”

The role of public-private partnerships and collective action in ensuring smallholder participation in high value fruit and vegetable supply chains:

"Many developing countries have moved into the production of non-traditional agricultural products to diversify their exports and increase foreign currency earnings. Accessing developed country markets and urban domestic markets requires meeting the food safety requirements due to several demand and supply side factors. Food retailers have developed protocols relating to pesticide residues, field and packinghouse operations, and traceability. In this changing scenario where food safety requirements are getting increasingly stringent, there are worries regarding the livelihood of the poor since companies that establish production centers in LDCs might exclude them. Poor producers face problems of how to produce safe food, be recognized as producing safe food, identify cost-effective technologies for reducing risk, and be competitive with larger producers with advantage of economies of scale in compliance with food safety requirements. In enabling the smallholders to remain competitive in such a system, new institutional arrangements are required. In particular, public-private partnerships can play a key role in creating farm to fork linkages that can satisfy the market demands for food safety while retaining smallholders in the supply chain. Furthermore, organized producer groups monitoring their own food safety requirements through collective action often become attractive to buyers who are looking for ways to ensure traceability and reduce transaction costs. This paper compares how small producers of different fruit and vegetable products in different countries have coped with increased demands for food safety from their main export markets. These commodities are Kenyan green beans, Mexican cantaloupes, and Indian grapes." authors' abstractFood safety, Supply chain management, Public-private partnerships, Collective action, Public and private standards, Traceability, small farms, High value agricultural products,

Influential Article Review - Building Business Advantage Through Tech

This paper examines technology. We present insights from a highly influential paper. Here are the highlights from this paper: Firms operate in an environment that is increasingly permeated with digital technology. The incorporation of digital technology into products, services, and operations has significant implications on how firms can attain and sustain competitive advantage. Traditional strategic models of competitive advantage – such as the industry structure view, the resource-based view or the dynamic capabilities approach – are built on assumptions which lack validity in today’s digital environments. Digitization radically changes the very nature of products, the process of value creation and, above all, firms’ competitive environment. This study contributes to a better understanding of how firms may achieve sustained competitive advantage in this digital economy: It outlines a network-centric view which explains the competitive environment of firms being confronted with digital technology and its affordances. Based on the network-centric view, the firms may achieve competitive advantage by actively shaping the digital environment (i.e. applying a logic of effectuation) and by value co-creating of the interconnected firms in the digital environment. The framework may help firms to design and create strategies in order to attain and sustain competitive advantage in a digital economy. For our overseas readers, we then present the insights from this paper in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German