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Clustering as a Means for Gaining Competitive Advantage in Small and Micro Furniture Firms' Marketing Opportunities
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Papadopoulos, Ioannis Karagouni, Glykeria Valergas, George Sevopoulou, Ioanna |
| Copyright Year | 2008 |
| Abstract | In the era of world trade liberalization and globalization, great demands are made on the ability of SMEs to improve their efficiency and flexibility. As the era generates larger market opportunities, individual SMEs, just because of their isolation, are often unable to capture these opportunities and practice modern marketing strategies or expand to new markets – local or niche ones. Experiences in many European countries show that clusters can be a powerful means for overcoming the above constraints and s쳮ding in an ever more competitive market environment. The main objective of the present paper is to form efficient marketing mix strategies, able to satisfy the expected benefits that a cluster could offer to small and micro furniture enterprises. It examines the goals, objectives and investments regarding the marketing strategies in relevance with the existing marketing policies and deficiencies and the entrepreneurs' mentality, in order to determine the needs and mix of attitudes necessary to create a promising viable cluster linked to markets. Empirical data was acquired through personal interviews in 50 Greek very small and micro firms, involved in the Furniture industry. The SPSS Statistical Programme Ver. 14 was used for the 175 variables. Regression and cross tabulation analyses were employed to examine the correlation between the existing product characteristics, their promotion actions and strategies, expected goals and investment objectives and the entrepreneurs' commitment to the creation of a cluster. The survey findings verify that firms that export and practice some kind of marketing policy tend to support more the cluster creation. The lack of new products development, the poor way of promoting the products, the inability to export and the tendency to low prices as competitive advantage prove to be the most important problems that strenghten the decision of clustering. The easier access to new, international markets and the possibility to adopt modern marketing strategies (which prove to be too remote when the firms are isolated) are the most powerful expected goals of the cluster. The study provides empirical evidence and insights of current status in Greek Furniture firms. Furthermore, the analysis of the micro and macro – marketing environment and the SWOT analysis of the furniture sector can point out the major weaknesses of microfirms of a mature industry that clustering can turn into opportunities. The study proves that according to firms'expectations prerequisite for successful cluster development is the cluster's potential to access growing markets, either domestic or abroad. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://mibes.teilar.gr/proceedings/2008/oral/Papadopoulos-Karagouni-Valergas-Sevopoulou.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.wfdt.teilar.gr/papers/conference/21_2008_MIBES2008_PAPADOPOULOS-KARAGKOUNI_after%20review3.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
