Competitiveness

Introduction:
In this research review different type of industries and factors are compared together to identify
the significant difference between the companies such as petroleum industry competitiveness,
public transportation competing with personal cars considering covid-19 facts, Quality
management system in logistic industry and online e-commerce market in identifying the
customer behaviour to perform better then the competitors. Relation with different department,
productivity of the companies in understanding the customer need and satisfying the consumer
by proving excellent service as well product depending on the requirements. Both service and
product are taken into account like in case of petroleum diesel and petrol are the products, in
online shopping both products as will as customer service is included. The purpose of this review
is to understand how different situations include unsimilar factors to increase the
competitiveness in the market. Even how different type of data collection is used to understand
the coming situation by making appropriate comparison. Additionally, this review also helps to
understand what kind of steps can be taken to overcome through the issues and gain more
market share in appropriate fields.

Discussion:
Impact of supply chain management in industry competitiveness:
The ideology of supply chain management is that the overall operation of supply chains raises
when the performance of all the organizations linked with the process is optimized in relative to
the performance of individual organizations. This should be done so that the customer gets high
standard of product and service. To understand this, study was conducted on Zimbabwean
petroleum industry.
Research questions:
What supply chain management practices are involved in the Zimbabwean petroleum industry?
What supply chain management challenges does the Zimbabwean petroleum industry face?
What impact does the known supply chain challenges put to the Zimbabwean petroleum
industry?1
Theoretical framework of study:
In this research the system theory developed by Von Bertallanfy in 1968. For example, the supply
chain, as a complete system which is made up of many sub-divisions. In order, for the system to
operate efficiently and effectively, a high level of collaboration, cooperation and Planning is
required among all the divisions (Shukla, Garg, and Agarwal 2011).1 Thus, for the petroleum

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industry’s supply chain to be competitive there must be alliance between the main company (the
petroleum companies) and suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Everything, including
inputs, processes, outputs, and the environmental factors related to the petroleum industry
supply chain should be managed according to the provisions of the systems theory to ensure
competitiveness. Few of the systems theory demands are continuous improvement, teamwork,
and identifying the root causes of all problems which management must try to fix (Brown,
Bessant, and Lamming 2013; Badenhorst-Weiss, van-Biljon, and Ambe 2017).1
An objective questionnaire was used to capture quantitative entrepreneurial and operations
information from supply chain management personnel working for petroleum companies. Both
qualitative and quantitative data were simultaneously collected to save time and resources and
because the two processes were different from each other.
Quantitative data collection:
With the help of a survey questionnaire the data was collected from 96 managers from supply
chain management from which 57 responses were received. The collected data was analysed by
using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.1
Qualitative data collection:
The in-depth interview was held with six ministries from different ministries that is Ministry of
Energy and Power Development, Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority and National Oil
Infrastructure Company.
Qualitative research findings:
The data was organised under two form that is business environment and supply chain
management practises and their impacts.
Firstly, the business environment was not favorable for genuine traders. As, so much illegal
activities were happening in the process. The rates of fuel for the customer were highest among
the region because there was foreign currency crisis in the nation. Under the liberalisation
initiative, the petroleum companies can import fuel using their own foreign currency, but reserve
bank was not having enough stocks of foreign currency as it was poorly managed. The pricing of
the petroleum was affected by the cost of product, duties, transportation cost. Legally, 6% margin
was allocated to retailer and 7% to importer.1 But some big giants were charging less then that
because of illegal trading which was disturbing the market.
Secondly, the supply chain was getting a
big blow by smugglers, shortage of foreign
currency. And even if a person gets
registered there were no restrictions on
what a person could do as importer, Figure: Pump prices of gasoline fuel in the SADC 2010, 2012, 2014
wholesaler, and retailer at the same time. and 2015.1

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 Qualitative data collection:
From all the responses 51.1% were satisfied by how supply chain management practises, 26.4%
have other view. Inventory management by NOIC (National Oil Infrastructure Company) 60.7%
were satisfied,26.8% were neutral and 12.5% were not satisfied.1 78.8% viewed that the
transportation process is fine but 89.5% said that the cost of transportation is still a challenge.
66.6% satisfied the way information was regulated. 66.6% satisfied with the customer service,
28.6% neutral and 34.7 % were not satisfied by the customer service. Everybody agreed that the
cost of the product is really high, decision-making challenge 98.2%, support from regime 92%
agreed on it that this is also an issue, and the product quality was also not good 95.5% agreed.1
Importance of online shopping behaviour for strategic management for e-commerce:
The study is conducted with the help of secondary data analysis, a questionnaire with certain
group of e-commerce companies and verification of hypothesis.
The data is selected on a scale of 1-5 (1- least important, 5- most important). From figure 1, the
size of the enterprise does not affect the range of the products and the security. The large
variations can be seen in the multichannel sale and E-shop certificates, that is small scale
industries does not provide multiple channels to customers the scale is least with 2.40 score. For
the e-shop certificate large enterprises are failing to get the authority.2
From figure 2, density of customer really gets effected by the added value in the purchase as
micro enterprises add offers and discount so their sales get increased as compared to large
companies. E- shop certificate also play an important role as large enterprises receive more trust
as compared to other large enterprises with no certificate.

“Figures source – study by Veronika Svatosva” “Figures source – study by Veronika Svatosva”

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Management of Competitiveness of Metropolis Public
Transport in the COVID-19 Pandemic: In this the focus is
to generalise the competitiveness of public transportation
in Moscow city with respect to use of personal car during
covid – 19 situations. Based on the factor and cluster
analysis of the value profile of the individuals, seven batch
of car owners were identified, and two large batch were
selected as target segments for public transport services.
The conclusion was made that it is required to differentiate
social and marketing programs to promote the Figure Reasons for increased use of personal car3
competitiveness of public transport in the minds of consumers.3
The data shown that 45% of the surveyed consumers (car owners who live in Moscow) evaluated
that public transport became more reliable. At the same time,
36% of the respondents showed the issue with the costs of
owning private cars. These facts in accordance with the
analysis of statistics of the investments and funds of the public
transportation and transport infrastructure development in
Moscow City assisted to confirm the theory that the attempts
to improve Moscow’s transport system have a positive effect
in terms of increasing the competitiveness of public transport
services in the minds of the potential consumers. Two of the
largest groups of respondents (by number) together make up Figure Average estimates
3
of the significance of universal
values for car owners

Figure. Graph of average values of factors of 7 clusters in relation to car owners to basic values.3

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43% of automobile owners and drivers. These clusters which is segments of potential consumers
have same features as desire for leadership and desire to boost public life.3
Creating value for estimated consumers of transport services can be stated within the following
ways, improving the buyers properties of services, creating added value services so as to provide
individuals with the chance to choose between different mobility kinds and their alliance within
the framework of intermodal mobility, encouraging non-motorized modes of transport,
restricting the utilization of personal cars, creating pedestrian zones, planning cities for
environmental mobility rather than for a car, and planning sufficient for the use of cars 3
Quality Management system as a tool for increasing competition in logistic services business
during covid economical crisis:
The section is based on the importance of quality management system in increasing their
competitiveness during the tough times of economical crisis as in 2008-2009 compared to
understand covid economical crisis. The information from 277 companies was collected on the
bases of
➢ Only legal entities (the legal sort of business ignored)
➢ Registered Office within the Czech Republic
➢ Profit-oriented (budgetary and contributory organizations excluded, but entrepreneurial
field disregarded)
➢ 2000 and more employees4

To gather the information from the company’s telephonic conversation was chosen as the best
option taking the situation in mind. A questionnaire was prepared containing following
questions:
Question 1: Had your company in 2007 and 2010 a registered office in the Czech Republic. Was
your organisation profit-oriented and had your company 2000 employees or more?
[the aim of this question was to verify actuality of the Commercial Registry record on the given
company]4
Question 2: Did your company in 2007 and 2010 utilize logistic services of an external provider?
[the purpose of this question was to understand whether the company is a potential customer
for a logistic service provider]4
Question 3: In 2007, did your company apply in selecting the provider of logistic services whether
the evaluated provider has a quality management system implemented?4
Question 4: In 2007, was the fulfillment of this principle a first condition for the evaluated
provider of logistic services to succeed in the selection process?4
Question 5: In 2010, did your company apply in selecting the provider of logistic services whether
the evaluated provider has a quality management system implemented?4
Question 6: In 2010, was the fulfillment of this principle a first condition for the evaluated
provider of logistic services to achieve the selection process?4

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Data processing:
The answers to the questions were in form of yes/no/partly.

Figure source: Study by Libor Šimek and Václav Cempírek

Figure source: Study by Libor Šimek and Václav Cempírek

On the bases of responding companies' reactions to Question 1, it was determined that – in both
monitored periods and shortly after its peak (2010) – the criteria for being entered into the study
as defined in the methodology divisions were achieved by 325 companies (96.44 % of the 337
responding companies), which refers to high accuracy of the Commercial Register entries. On the
bases of responses to Question 2, it was recognized that 277 companies (85.23 % of the 325
qualified companies) – both in 2007 and 2010 – utilized external logistic services. This relatively
high proportion indicates that even “big” companies with large resources enabling them to
realize their logistics independently from external subjects may need outsourced support of
external providers.4 Further analysis was conducted on the target companies bases that is 277
companies who gives positive answer to the first two question. As many companies basically the
big scale companies started taking QMS seriously as the customer demands were changing.
Earlier few companies were giving best quality to only luxurious products. And about half that is
177 (50%) does not changed anything in their policies.4 As the demands and the development
happened companies started developing agreements with the logistic service providers to take
quality management system seriously so that the quality of the product and the service is not
compromised. It was a sudden move companies started running towards the QMS certificate
providers as it was easy find the client for certified businesses but for the small-scale companies,

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they have to struggle a bit because of the indolent of high amount. But it really helped in
increasing their competitive power in the defined areas.

Conclusion:
From the above information it is confirmed that competitiveness power of the organisations
begins at the early stage of the process as in case of petroleum industry supply chain
management is the most important part of the business after considering the price of the
petroleum. It is clearly understandable that the communication gap between the departments
in the Zimbabweans petroleum departments involve in the business was creating a huge miss
with the prices of the final product that is petrol and diesel. Similarly, in case of online e-
commerce, if the supply chain is not proper the parcel will never reach to the customers doorstep
on promised time. Strict rules and regulations really help to function things effectively in the
supply chain management. Moving ahead with added value, in covid-19 time all are cautious
about there safety and health. Public transportation was on a huge blow in the case as people
were not filling comfortable to travel through buses in fear of catching the deadly flue. So, the
department decided to make it comfortable and safer, that is increasing hygiene, hand sanitizers
at every needed location, increased the number of bus stops, and following social distancing
norms. Similarly, providing discounts on event time by e-commerce companies on variety of
products attracts the customer to their platforms. Total quality management is in the business
from a long period, logistics service providers are approached in a way that the companies expect
to get a proper quality of delivery and storage on there products with best quality and large
amount of customer satisfaction. Specially, the companies with large capital share like a e-
commerce company they do not want that a customer ordered a product and some how the user
get sick after that as the product went through many hand, and was not properly sanitized. One
mistake huge loss of market share. So, the quality management indolent in logistic companies
have become very important. Data collection from different ways also show how to relate and
summarize the information in different ways to get appropriate information.
At last Quality Management, Supply Chain Management, and Strategy Management in vital for
each and every department either it is petroleum, e-commerce, public transportation or logistic
service business equally.

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References:
1. Happyson Bimha, Muhammad Hoque & Elias Munapo (2020).The impact of supply chain management
practices on industry competitiveness: A mixed-methods study on the Zimbabwean petroleum
industry. African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 12:1, 97-109, DOI:
10.1080/20421338.2019.1613785.
2. Veronika Svatosva (2020). The Importance of online shopping behaviour for strategic management for
e-commerce competitiveness journal of competitiveness 12(4), 143-160.
3. Galina Timokhina, Natalia Ivashkova, Irina Skorobogatykh, Taira Murtuzalieva and Zhanna Musatova
(2020). Management of Competitiveness of Metropolis Public Transport in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Based on Core Consumers’ Values. Department of Marketing, Plekhanov Russian University of
Economics, 117997 Moscow, Russia.
4. Recession Libor Šimek, University of Pardubice Václav Cempírek, University of Pardubice. Volume 20,
Issue 2, (2021). Quality Management System as a "Tool" for increasing competitiveness of logistic
services providers in coronavirus economic IMDS 112,4