There are so many reasons of competition among products; the purpose of this study was to find different factors on which competition was dependent. Hypotheses were generated to find the impact of factors on competition. A cross-sectional design research study was conducts through a survey form where a total of 260 respondents participated. Result was derived with the help of statistical tool i.e. one sample T-test and mean value was assigned 4. The end result concluded that competition is dependent on all the factors (availability of goods, delivery on time, discounted pricing by suppliers, cost of products, quality of products, promotional activities and number of variations) except one factor (product support services). This study to some extend gave a view that product services created no difference for customers to buy but other factors related to cost and quality mattered

Alvi, Mohsin

Aqeel, Beenish

Ikram, Midra

Khan, M. Mubashir Q.

Mirza, Mohammad Haris

Munich Personal RePEc Archive

MPRA
Munich Personal RePEc Archive
Analyzing the Factors for Creating
Competition among Products
Mohsin Alvi and Mohammad Haris Mirza and M. Mubashir
Q. Khan and Beenish Aqeel and Midra Ikram
University of Karachi, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and
Technology, Government of Sindh Law and Business Administration,
Engro Fertilizer, Institute of Clinical Psychology
20 March 2016
Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/71894/
MPRA Paper No. 71894, posted 13 June 2016 14:40 UTC
Published in: Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, Pg. 383-386, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
Analyzing the Factors for Creating Competition among Products
Mohsin Hassan Alvi
University of Karachi
mohsinhassanalvi@hotmail.com
Karachi, Pakistan
Mohammad Haris Mirza 
Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology
m.harismirza@gmail.com 
Karachi, Pakistan
M. Mubashir Q. Khan
Government of Sindh Law and Business Administration
mubashirrazakhan@gmail.com
Karachi, Pakistan
Beenish Aqeel
Engro Fertilizers Limited
beenish.aqeel87@gmail.com
Karachi, Pakistan
Midra Ikram
University of Karachi
midraikram@hotmail.com
Karachi, Pakistan
Abstract
There are so many reasons of competition among products; the purpose of this study was to find 
different factors on which competition was dependent. Hypotheses were generated to find the 
impact of factors on competition. A cross-sectional design research study was conducts through a 
survey form where a total of 260 respondents participated. Result was derived with the help of 
statistical tool i.e. one sample T-test and mean value was assigned 4. The end result concluded 
that competition is dependent on all the factors (availability of goods, delivery on time, 
discounted pricing by suppliers, cost of products, quality of products, promotional activities and 
number of variations) except one factor (product support services). This study to some extend 
Published in: Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, Pg. 383-386, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
gave a view that product services created no difference for customers to buy but other factors 
related to cost and quality mattered. 
Keywords: Competition, Products, Customer, One Sample T-test, 
1. Introduction
Competition has increased worldwide, due to more advanced technology the processes 
through with companies manufactures the products had become very fast, every function started 
operating rapidly, time became short and competition got tougher among people, brands, 
products, services and organizations. The purpose of this study was to work on the different 
variables which created competition among the products. The factors on which competition was 
dependent could be brand equity or brand name, product creativeness or every step was involved 
while producing a product or after sales services. Various products were made for various 
reasons, same way competition among products had various factors like cost, promotional 
activities, discounting schemes, supply chain, innovativeness, and customer services. In this era 
where technology rules, it’s very tough to compete with each other. It is not necessary 
competition among brands is due to brand itself, but there could be many stages involved for a 
product to reach to end users like promotional activities, designing, logistics and many other 
strategies. End users only judge a product according to their perceptions, quality, pricing and 
availability. Before internet era competition among the products used to be in retail shops, people 
had very less access to survey the market and for consumers their priority product used to be 
good brand name with high brand equity, quality and availability. Competition among products 
was very less and companies/manufacturers used to focus on quality and brand equity. In late 
90’s when the use of internet started growing, perception of consumers changed. Consumer 
needs more variety and variation in products, cost effective products, better quality, easily 
available and easy to use products. Due to these factors competition among every industry and 
products have increased at its peak. Organizations major focus is on cost efficiency, supply chain 
which includes delivery on time and availability, quality, promotional activities to attract 
consumers, variations in products and services attached with products or after sales services.
Factors increased competition among products are  availability of goods, delivery on time, 
discounted pricing by suppliers, cost of products, quality of products, promotional activities, 
Published in: Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, Pg. 383-386, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
number of variations and product support services.  Competition among products varies from 
industry to industry, if it’s a food industry quality of food, ambiance and service will be the 
competitive advantage, whereas if it’s fast moving consumer products then quantity, availability, 
price and variation will be the competitive advantage. Clothing industry have different 
competition advantage like designs, brand equity and brand name, styles and quality of the 
product and if its telecommunication then brand name, cost effectiveness, variety of applications 
in one mobile and same for electronic compliances. 
2. Problem Statement
To study and find the factors creating competition among products where there are 
numbers of reasons for competing and variety of similar products available. In this technology 
world where everyday a new and innovative product is launched it has become more complicated 
to focus on one factor and every industry and product do not have same competing factors.
3. Hypotheses of the Study
H1: There is significant impact of availability of goods on competition.
H2: There is significant impact of delivery on time on competition.
H3: There is significant impact of supplier's discounted pricing on competition.
H4: There is significant impact of Cost of products on competition.
H5: There is significant impact of Quality of products on competition.
H6: There is significant impact of Promotional Activities on competition
H7: There is significant impact of Number of products available on competition
H8: There is significant impact of Product Support Service on competition.
4. Literature Review
While explaining the important of supply chain, it was focused that competition was not 
mostly among organizations but among supply chain. This research conceptualized supply chain 
management five dimensions consumer relationship, quality of information sharing, 
postponement, strategic supplier partnership and level of information sharing. A total of 196 
organizations were taken into account and with the help of structural equations model framework 
Published in: Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, Pg. 383-386, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
was tested. The end result showed that competitive advantage and better organizational 
performance occurred due to high level of supply chain practiced in organizations Lia, Nathan, 
Nathanb and Rao (2004). The role of the products with the benefits provided to customer by 
delivering different services. In this study new approach for operations and different supply 
chain strategies were enlightened. Operation management was used to synthesis and reviews the 
entire concept, and for the economic related areas. Different services were kept as examples to 
evaluate the results and compared different product related approaches and combinations. Out of 
four, three areas were identified as presently used with the help of operation management and 
IHIP. The results proved that services provided to customers added the value to the product and 
positive response was noticed Spring and Araujo (2009). An attempt was also made in order to 
elucidate the importance of branding of telecommunication (mobile phone), manufacturers, 
consumers and retailers. In this study it was assumed that high sales can be caused by high brand 
equity, and in Philippine mobile phones subscription growth was found faster than any other 
country. Furthermore advertisement and promotion were considered between manufactures and 
service providers of mobile phone, and consumers mobile phones brand choices was affected by 
various activities. A total of 800 correspondents were questioned through questionnaire, and with 
the help of regression analysis data was interpreted and result was concluded. Results showed a 
negative relation price and variable of choice and positive relation with conceptualizing and 
branding Liu (2002). Other authors and strategists believed that to be successful product it is 
necessary to maintain level of innovation. In this study it was demonstrated that innovativeness 
was not the only success factor for a product to make place in market, a U-shaped relation 
between both the variables (innovative and commercial success) was developed. It was proved 
that both levels (high and low) of innovativeness products were successful in the market and had 
almost same level of sales. Furthermore it was concluded that to measure a product’s success 
many other factors like quality, brand image, price, durability, demand, advertisement and many 
more factors were involved along with innovativeness Kleinschmidt and Cooper (2003). Another 
research was promotional sales activities for product categories and other specific characteristics. 
The study highlighted from retailers perspective rather than particular brand as sales and revenue 
are more closely related to retailers. From 25 different SAMI categories 2000 brands were 
obtained from major grocery chains. The data suggested that as the discounts increased sales 
Published in: Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, Pg. 383-386, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
frequency, but if the frequency of discounts increased it showed negative impact on sales. 
Furthermore, sales for bulky items it was found that competition was very high and variability in 
sales was exhibited very low Raju (1992). Authors investigated on the variable customer loyalty 
for brand. The goal was to reduce customer’s reliance on different promotional scheme and win 
customer loyalty for service business. The use to two promotional activities advertising 
specialties by giving free giveaways and price promotions were highly used for Chinese food 
delivery and drycleaner services. The study was conducted in United States metropolitan areas 
through a behavioral measure on field experiment. The experiment was conducted with the help 
of different businesses by giving consumers repeated business and stopped the other promotional 
activities, and in some experiments generated pricing promotions. The result prompted that 
consumers purchasing were more towards specialty gifts and repeated opportunities but without 
these promotional activities there were no brand loyalty Kendrick (1998). It has been worked 
earlier on the most important factor information, where it was discussed clearly new 
technological information would bring in competitive advantage for the products in future. In 
this study authors analyzed the significance of technology and showed that technology brought 
big change in the functions of organizations, it even made the processes fast and efficient. 
Organizations with high technology had the competitive advantage in contacting with 
employees, suppliers and customers very rapidly.  With the help of value chain and value system 
models every step was explained in detail and with the technological information incorporated in 
every step made the processes faster which became most important part of success factor (Porter 
and Millar, 1985).
In this study it was investigated about the two substitutes manufactured by same organization in 
the sensitive time and pricing markets. The differentiating factors were price and delivery time, 
in which it was assumed that standard capacity and delivery time were specified to each of the 
product. The main objective of the firm was to figure out which product was cost effective and 
had more reduction in capacity. Firm studied both the products and developed an integrated 
pricing model, and decisions on costs effectiveness with delivery time. Author showed that firm 
should adapt to bring in change on operating dynamics to create differentiation of products and 
lead the market. It was suggested by the model that cost brought internal efficiency for the firm 
whereas time delivery won the competitive advantage for the product (Boyachi and Ray, 2003).
Published in: Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, Pg. 383-386, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
5. Methodology
A cross sectional design study was conducted in the Karachi, Pakistan. In this study, 
quantitative paradigms were adapted and data was gathered through questionnaires. Data was 
gathered randomly from 260 respondents, all the questionnaires covered each hypothesis and 
factor. Survey was conducted in order to gathered unbiased data that used for revealing the 
results of hypotheses. It was assumed all the assumptions presented the truly reflect the entire 
population. The unrestricted non-probability sampling technique was used where the subjects 
were chosen based on the easy accessibility to the researcher. Data was collected through self-
administered questionnaire from different people using multiple products who were 
manufacturers, retailers and customers. Closed ended questionnaire were used using likert scale 
of 1 to 6 to record the response of the sample. Statistical technique used in this research was one 
sample t-test with population mean value 4. 
6. Results
Table 6.1:  One Sample T-test
 
N Mean Std. Deviation Sig. (2-tailed)
Mean 
Difference
Availability of products 260 4.190 0.686 0.000 0.190
Delivery on time 260 4.267 0.462 0.000 0.267
Suppliers discounted pricing 260 4.446 0.470 0.000 0.446
Cost of Products 260 4.325 0.546 0.000 0.325
Quality of Products 260 4.314 0.521 0.000 0.313
Promotional Activities 260 4.335 0.499 0.000 0.335
Number of products available 260 4.235 0.494 0.000 0.235
Product Support Service 260 3.935 0.469 0.025 -0.065
The Table 6.1 shows the results in terms of comparing the different factors to explain the 
intensity of competition due to several numbers of products available in the market and their 
characteristics. The impact of variables was categorized including both nominal and ordinal 
scales. Summed up the hypothesis it concluded all factors have positive impact on competition 
Published in: Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, Pg. 383-386, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
among products except one factor. As mentioned earlier eight factors were considered creating 
competition, for concluding the data and analysis one sample T-Test has been used with test 
value 4.  All the factors; availability of goods (with mean difference 0.198), delivery on time 
(with mean difference 0.267), discounted pricing by suppliers (with mean difference 0.446), cost 
of products (with mean difference 0.325), quality of products (with mean difference 0.3134, 
promotional activities (with mean difference 0.3346), number of variations (with mean 
difference 0.2346) have mean values above 4, whereas product support services (with mean 
difference -0.0654) has mean value below 4.  The result showed competition is dependent on all 
of the factors except one predictor product support service.
7. Discussion
This has been observed that competition among products occurs due to many of the 
various factors, and the reason behind high competition was awareness, accessibility, internet 
(online availability and delivery) which gives consumers comfort and saves their time. Another 
reason of increasing competition are local manufacturers, they have made substitutes of all the 
products available in the markets with low prices and different packet size as well. This changes 
the perception of people towards consuming smaller packet size. As a result of this, sachet or 
small pack of product sold out quickly as compare to large packet Alvi (2015). If these local 
manufacturers will be eliminated from the markets then the big manufacturers will keep the 
prices high with less availability, furthermore they challenge big manufacturers of developing or 
making same product as they make. This will encourage the manufacturers to come up with new 
and innovative ideas. 
8. Conclusion
Result revealed that hypotheses associated with predictors (availability of goods, delivery 
on time, discounted pricing by suppliers, cost of products, quality of products, promotional 
activities and number of variations) have impacted on competition positively whereas one 
predictor product support service has impacted negatively on competition. This clearly shows 
that if none of the factors mentioned above will be presented then there will be no reason for 
competition, which will lead towards monopoly of the product. But product support service has 
Published in: Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, Pg. 383-386, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
nothing to do with the competition as this is usually considered as after sales service. It is 
necessary for the product to be sold to the end user then support service will intervene. A 
manufacturing organization must work on these factors to compete and make place in market. 
Dependency of these factors on competition showed that any organization without one factor can 
stand out and will lose the market share. There can be more factors which can be tested for future 
research like designing, creativeness, brand equity, brand name, just in time and other supply 
chain factors, advertisements and others.   
References
Alvi, Mohsin (2015). The impact of packet size on inventory turnover of FMCG products in 
Pakistan: Wholesaler and retailer perspective. International Journal of Empirical 
Finance, 4(3), 165-169
Boyachi, T. & Ray, S. (2003). Product Differentiation and Capacity Cost Interaction in Time and 
Price Sensitive Markets. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 5(1), 18 – 
36.
Kendrick, A. (1998). Promotional products Vs price promotion in fostering customer loyalty: a 
report of two controlled field experiments, Journal of Services Marketing, 12(4), 312 – 
326.
 
Kleinschmidt, E. J. & Cooper, R. G. (2003). The Impact of Product Innovativeness on 
Performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 8(4), 240 – 251.
 
Lia, S., Ragu-Nathan, B., Ragu-Nathanb, T. S. &Rao, S. S. (2004). The impact of supply chain 
management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance”. The 
International Journal of Sciences, (34), 107 – 124.
Liu, C. M. (2002).The effects of promotional activities on brand decision in the cellular 
telephone industry. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 11(1), 42 – 51.
Porter, M. E. & Millar, V. E. (1985). How information gives you competitive advantage. 
Harvard Business Review, 63(4), 85415.
 
Raju, J. S. (1992). The Effect of Price Promotions on Variability in Product Category Sales. 
Marketing Sciences, 11(3), 207 – 220.
Published in: Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, Pg. 383-386, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
Spring, M. & Araujo, L. (2009).Service, services and products: Rethinking operations strategy 
International.  Journal of Operations & Production Management, 29(5), 444- 467.


Analyzing the Factors for Creating Competition among Products

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