Strategies to Improve Competitiveness of Saudi Arabian Manufacturing Industries
Strategies to Improve Competitiveness of Saudi Arabian Manufacturing Industries
Literature review
Competition and innovation
A competitive environment positively contributes to the promotion of innovations. A model exists in which competition is an inhibitor of innovations in the laggard firms while it encourages the firms adopting a neck-and-neck completion towards innovations. A relationship has been identified between the competition of a product market and innovation with a strong evidence of the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship with the application of the panel data. The average distance in the level of technology between the leader organizations and the followers continues to widen as a result of competition. This leads to the inverted-U relationship being steeper in the case of the neck-and-neck industries (XIN, 2009).
The incumbents in the industry will tend towards the implementation of innovative technology solutions, an act that complements the portfolios of their products. This therefore implies that competition has the potentials of enhancing the innovative offerings of the market and the innovators also increase the level of competition implying that the interrelationship between competition and innovation is two way. Competition and innovation calls for the adoption of management techniques such as quality management (William & Robert, 1982). Quality management techniques are essential in the growth and performance of a manufacturing and service business firms. It is a field that is relatively new and growing market as it developed from the 1920s gradually to the contemporary society. A clear link of innovation and competition is realized when manufacturing industry in Saudi Arabia competently adopts with such techniques. This has its origin in the principles of quality control that are the initial stages of the growth of the business. The contribution of innovations in the manufacturing industry is an increase in the offerings in the market added to the increase in the level of production (Ken, 1997).
Innovation – Product -Mechanisms.
The occurrence of innovation is governed by the insights of generating creative ideas and this is intended to achieve a competitive advantage in the market. The realization of the objectives depends on the competence of implementing the innovation to come up with a genuine difference. This results to the changes in the internal processes of the business or the specific products or the services that the organization offers.
Products relations to competitive advantages
The quality of product that the manufacturing industries in Saudi Arabia deliver to their customer will determine the level of customer satisfaction, if its high then consumers will be highly satisfied and hence the manufacturing company will have a gained competitive advantage over other companies at the same time improving competitiveness of the industry (Brian, 1989).
Products that are currently being manufactured in the competitive industry will undergo numerous improvements to improve their quality also new and innovative products will be introduced into the market by industry players (Edgar, 1976).
Recent research and studies have shown that the Saudi Arabia manufacturing industry will become more competitive if the industry players’ focus on producing customized products which are delivered to customers timely and this would mean that industry leaders need to change or improve their product design and decisions regarding marketing of products (Charles, 2009).
Improving the quality of products will not totally be achieved by focusing on the manufacturing function but other industry factors as well, these could include; the industries’ corporate culture, the philosophy of the management in the companies and a steadfast commitment by management and staff of the Saudi Arabia manufacturing industry (Lawrence, 1991).
The premise behind vision 2020 is the critical situation of the manufacturing industry in Saudi Arabia for the purpose of its future progress. Manufacturing industry in the country is a critical engine in the process of deployment of innovative technologies as well as raising the levels of innovations. These are the two essential factors that govern the success in an emerging global economy (Jeremy, 1982). The importance of manufacturing is pegged on the enhancement of exports and their movement forms the low vale products to the high value ones, the skill as well as technologically intense products with a high rate of growth in global markets leading to the sustainability of a high rate of income growth. New skills are also created as a result of manufacturing (John, 1995).
The competition in the manufacturing industry in Saudi Arabia will need more skilled and competent workforce more so in the line of innovation capabilities, management and technical know-how. The current workforce or new employees will be enhanced to meet these requirements by attending various trainings and learning sessions (Ronald, 2002). The training or the learning process could be a government project or the industry players joint effort who will all be aiming at, increasing education standards in science and technology learning and training institutions, boost the growth of small and medium enterprises which are technology based, increasing the level of managerial skills and innovation abilities through these trainings in the companies that already exist (William & Janet, 976).
Research questions
The research will seek to answer questions such as;
The significance of Saudi Arabian manufacturing Industry and if its beneficial to the countries economy.
Is the Saudi Arabia manufacturing industry competitive?
What’s the competition level in the Saudi Arabia manufacturing industry?
The factors that have led to increase or decrease in the competition level in that industry?
Does the industry aspire to be more competitive even to the outside market?
What are the strategies that can be adopted to improve the competitiveness of Saudi Arabian manufacturing industry?
In this research the researcher will attempt to answer the following questions:
Does a positive competitive environment contribute to the promotion of innovations?
What is the relationship between competition of a product market and innovation?
Bibliography
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