competitive advantages

Competitive advantages play a unique role in organizations' successes or failures because of customers' very speedy accessibility to suppliers and manufacturers. Indeed, this is competitive advantages which can make firms and organizations survive and grow in today's increasing competitive field attaining by creating and or improving their capabilities. The main goal of the study is to design a grounded theory model extracted from the transnational capabilities, but this required to explore the transnational capabilities aiming for the international markets entry. The statistical population of this qualitative research included experts and managers working in the steel pipe manufacturing companies of Iranian gas and oil industry. The data collected via interviews. The validity assured by counseling with the elites and university professors and the reliability verified by the Delphi technique. The findings revealed 496 open, 44 axial and 9 selective codes including: 1) Marketing, 2) Managerial, 3) Human Resources, 4) Financial, 5) Manufacturing, 6) Quality & Standards, 7) Research & Development 8) Logistics and 9) Interactions and counseling with the government. Finally, a new model extracted and represented from analysis of the axial coding process of the grounded theory. The model precisely clarified relationships among the components including casual conditions, context, actions/interactions (strategies), intervening conditions and consequences. Recognition of the relationships of the components will help better understanding of the capabilities. This will lead to attain the competitive advantages needed for successful entry into the international markets.

Purpose - Achieving balanced development and spatial justice with much emphasis on competitive advantages has been constantly the main concern among planners and policy-makers to reduce inefficiency, inequality, polarization, and fragmentation in the spatial structure of different countries. Fulfilling such goals demands the knowledge of local potentials and the way to exploit them in a correct manner. Therefore, this study aimed to identify competitive advantages and levels of living in the study area, and then assess the effective drivers of balanced regional development (BRD) based on local competitiveness using future studies. Design/methodology/approach- An analytical-exploratory applied method was used to reflect on the rural areas and the researchers working on regional planning in Ardabil Township, Iran, were the statistical population. The sample size was thus determined to be 30 individuals using the snowball sampling method (via theoretical saturation). The data were also collected by a Delphi questionnaire, library method, documents, statistics, and initiatives. To analyze the data, Micmac software, the Geographic Information System (GIS software), Microsoft EXCEL, and the Morris method were employed. Finding- Analyzing the research findings associated with the variables as determinants with direct influence showed that among 23 variables in this study, 13 cases were within direct influence-dependence scope or condition but only 12 variables prioritized respectively as policy stability, executive regulations/procedures, price stability and predictability and intervention logic, monopoly prevention, unfair concessions or rents and competitions, removal of administrative barriers to business through delegation approach, effective deterrence of criminal laws and prosecutions in the judicial system, innovation/initiative flow, prevention of biased perceptions of laws by relevant stakeholders, distribution system and marketing status, effective market demand, administrative procedures and business information transparency, willingness to buy foreign goods, as well as auditing and taxing regulations/procedures as determinants had the highest influential power, that is, they constituted the drivers of BRD. Research limitations/implications - Among the most important limitations of the present study was no access to the statistics of all cases and the unwillingness of a number of executive organizations and bodies in Ardabil Township to cooperate. Furthermore, the pivot strategies in this research were established based on local development and BRD strategies. Practical implications - To meet the objectives of BRD planning in the rural areas of Ardabil Township, the key role of the 12 main variables mentioned here should be taken into account. Such variables have high influence and low dependence on BRD improvements in the study area and they are of top priority in planning for BRD based on local competitiveness in the rural areas of Ardabil County, Iran. Originality/Value - Little research has thus far assessed the effective drivers of BRD based on local competitiveness using future studies. Amongst the advantages of the present study, the comprehensiveness and impediment of its research criteria stand out.