The paper aims to analyze the relationships between strategic capabilities and performance among food SMEs, identifying which capabilities play a leading role in establishing competitive advantage. Four strategic capabilities were analyzed: innovation, marketing, network, and information acquisition. We ran a Structural Equation Model involving 67 food SMEs located in Italy. The results revealed that the marketing, network, and innovation capabilities directly and positively affect performance. SMEs benefit from selling their products in the national market. The network capability plays a dual role: It has a direct positive influence on performance as well as an indirect effect on the capability to acquire information about market and supply chain agents. The acquired market-and consumer-related information is extremely valuable in enhancing the marketing capability and improving performance. The innovation capability is slightly less significant than the others in affecting performance.[EconLit citations: L11, L25, L66, Q13] C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Purpose -Education and training are critical factors for achieving the Lisbon strategy's objectives of encouraging economic growth, competitiveness and social inclusion in the European Union (EU). The role of continuing vocational training (CVT) and its contribution to personal development and fulfilment is increasingly recognised in EU Member States' National Reform Programmes. In this context the main objective of this paper is to establish a ranking of the importance of the competences required by CVT trainers in Spain according to national lifelong learning (LLL) standards.Design/methodology/approach -A combination of literature review analysis and evaluation of experts' participation is used, based on two-round e-Delphi techniques. The literature review analysis identified the criteria, sub-criteria and indicators that describe the trainers' basic (pedagogical) and specific (skills, abilities, aptitude/attitude and attributes) competences. The questionnaire summarises a wide range of competences and skills related to Spanish trainers. It was distributed among 20 national experts (with experience ranging from three to 30 years in informal and non-formal training and professional profiles such as training manager, high manager, training programmer, trainers and tutors among others) in order to evaluate the importance of different competences.Findings -The analysis of the e-Delphi expert evaluation yields two main findings. First, it provides a unique e-Delphi draft that contains trainers' professional competences in a non-formal permanent learning context. Second, it also includes the evaluation of their importance by 20 Spanish experts who are considered to be a qualitative national sample.Practical implications -The role of European and Spanish trainers has changed in the last two decades. Trainers need wide recognition of their professional profile in a LLL framework. This requires the recognition of new and renewal of traditional competences, so that they can work as professionals of non-formal education and assume responsibilities.Originality/value -CVT takes on a variety of forms in different countries and also within a given country. Thus the identification and anticipation of competences and skills required by trainers as important actors on whom training quality and efficiency depends is important. In this case study, the analysis of the expert evaluations shows that specific competences/skills (personal abilities, attitudes in classroom and workshop), are very important in developing a trainer's professional figure. Traditional pedagogical competences (planning, imparting and evaluation) are not forgotten, but new skills have additional characteristics such as ''identification, and analysis of training needs'', ''training management'', ''training implementation'' and participant focus.
RESUMEN:Este trabajo investiga la relación entre las ventajas competitivas y resultados empresariales en el marco de la industria agroalimentaria (IAA) en Aragón (España). Se propone un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales cuyas relaciones se construyen teniendo en cuenta la literatura existente sobre el tema tanto en su vertiente teórica como empírica. Sobre una muestra de 194 empresas agroalimentarias aragonesas y un total de 19 indicadores, seleccionados para inferir las ventajas competitivas empresariales, se ha utilizado la técnica de Partial Least Squares (PLS) para contrastar las relaciones estructurales. La importancia de las actividades de innovación, introducción de nuevos productos y relaciones con los proveedores sobresalen sobre otros tipos de actividades y confirman cuatro de las siete hipótesis enunciadas. PALABRAS CLAVE: Industria agroalimentaria (IAA), Aragón, ventajas competitivas, Modelo de Ecuaciones Estructurales (MEE).Clasificación JEL: C31, C51, L66, R10. The relationship between competitive advantage and firms resultsin the Aragon food industry SUMMARY: This paper examines relationships among competitive advantages and managerial results of the food-processing industry (IAA) in Aragon (Spain). A structural equations model has been proposed based of an extensive literature review including both theoretical and empirical contributions. A sample of 194 food-processing industries and 19 indicators was selected to infer the competitive managerial advantages. Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique has been used to test the structural relationships. Innovation activities, introduction of new products and relationships with suppliers are the most important activities, among others, confirming four of the seven proposed hypotheses.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.