Files
Abstract
The objective of this work is to analyse the relative importance of three groups of competitive
advantage factors on firms’ results of the Spanish agro-food industry. Competitive advantage
factors correspond to three aspects: agro-food firms internal sources called, in this study, Potential
Resources (RP); agro-food firms relationships with other firms, which are called Specific
Firms Relationships (RE); and, the market and industry characteristics plus the industrial localisation,
which are included in the so called Market Structure and Industry Location (EMI).
Seven hypotheses have been formulated to asses direct and indirect relationships between RP,
RE, EMI and economic Results (R) specifying causality directions between explicative indicators
for each competitive factor. The seven hypotheses have been combined in a hypothetical
model with structural equations defining firms’ competitiveness. A sample of 294 firms has
been used and 17 variables related to competitive advantages have been selected. Indicators related
to Potential Resources refer to technological levels, development of new products as well
as promotion and advertising activities. Agro-food firms’ relationships are taken into account
introducing variables accounting for relationships with suppliers, distributors and other firms.
The Market Structure and Industry are taken into account considering the concentration degree
of the food distribution firms, entry of new firms into the market and product prices, among
others. Results have been measured with indicators measuring investment over sales, added value
and export intensity.
Results indicate that Potential Resources and the Specific Firms Relationships explain better the
variability of the Results with a strong relationship between those two groups of variables. Altogether
this analysis supports 4 out of the 7 proposed hypotheses. The most important variables
influencing results are product and process innovations as well as relationships with suppliers.