Assessing the role of competitiveness estimation as an advisory strategic factor in manufacturing firms: A literature review

Abstract

Competitiveness estimation is a crucial matter both at the firm and the national level. Consequently, the justification of the factors creating a competitive advantage combining with the ways which affect them and especially in manufacturing firms hold great importance because they perform as an advisory tool for the selection of the proper strategy for them. To provide a specific framework and to study the way in which specific factors affect the competitiveness of manufacturing firms a literature review was conducted. Papers from 1967 to 2022 were selected including all the existing methodologies for competitiveness estimation (Porter’s Five Diamonds and financial indexes) and their main results were presented. The main results of this work show the relationship between the variables used for the competitiveness estimation as well as the existence of the effect of different factors on it such as profitability, market share, and advertising as instruments for advice in choosing the best approach. Specifically, the effect of profitability on market share and vice versa is generally seen as well as the effect of factors such as customer satisfaction, tradition, etc.