Wilma Viviers

Competitive intelligence: construct exploration, validation and equivalence

Purpose – Little empirical research has been conducted on competitive intelligence (CI). This paper aims to contribute to the quantitative strand of the CI literature by exploring and validating the theoretical constructs of the CI process.Design/methodology/approach – Data from 601 questionnaires filled out by South African and Flemish exporters were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and construct equivalence analysis between the sub‐samples.Findings – The results showed that the CI process consists of three constructs, while the context in which CI takes place consists of four constructs. This agrees to some extent with the literature. When verifying the constructs for both cultures it was found that all but one CI context construct can be viewed as equivalent in both groups. Bias analysis identified one item in the questionnaire that was biased. Via regression analysis it was also indicated that the context in which CI takes place influences the CI process to a large extent. The research identif...

Enhancing a competitive intelligence culture in South Africa

Purpose – For competitive intelligence (CI) to evolve into a successful business discipline in a company, a culture of competitiveness should prevail. The extent to which CI is practiced in South Africa and the CI culture that exists in South Africa have remained a mystery until the late 1990s. It is the aim of this paper to assess the development of the CI culture since the late 1990s in South Africa and to make recommendations to enhance this culture. Design/methodology/approach – For the empirical evidence, the results of two previous research projects were used. Questionnaires were used in these projects. The questions covered all areas of the intelligence cycle: planning and focus, collection, analysis, communication, process and structure, awareness and culture and attitudes towards CI. Data of the sample population to perform a sample selection was gathered from three sources, namely Reed Inc., the Kompass Southern African and the membership lists of the respective Export Councils. In both the projects, the respondents had to answer the questions on a five-point Likert scale, where 1 equals either never or disagree and 5 equals always or strongly agree. Findings – The results of observations and research projects show a sustained level of awareness of CI and a CI culture within South African companies since 1999. However, research into the CI practices of South African companies (both descriptive and empirical) and specifically into the CI practices of South African exporters has shown certain areas in which local companies lag behind other countries. In particular, in terms of the extent and depth of education, training and consulting services, South Africa is far behind most developed countries. With better training and education opportunities available, in particular in terms of strategic and competitive analysis and the management of CI, these weak areas of the discipline are sure to improve with time. Research limitations/implications – The research was built around the six key areas that, collectively, from the intelligence model as identified by Calof and Breakspear in 1999, i.e. planning and focus, collection, analysis, communication, process and structure, and organisational awareness and culture. Some of the key findings were that South African companies showed a general lack of appropriate processes and structures for CI; that there was little evidence that systems in companies assist the CI activities; that few companies could claim that CI was embedded in the whole company; little information sharing took place and people in the company in general did not know the focus of the intelligence activity. Originality/value – The paper provides recommendations on ways to enhance and foster a competitive or CI culture in South Africa. Various ways to enhance a competitive or CI culture in countries and companies are proposed including CI awareness and training sessions for industry, company managers recognising the value of CI as a tool to enhance competitiveness and appropriate CI related training programmes.

A framework for creating an export society in South Africa

How do you create a strong and growing cadre of successful exporters? As will be demonstrated in this article, the current direction towards more open trading policies provides a small part of the solution, but does little to stimulate non‐exporters or develop new exporters. This article proposes a framework which could help all exporters reach their maximum potential and in doing so lay the groundwork for economic growth and prosperity. To ensure that South Africa’s economy reaches its fullest potential requires that the government follow up on the RDP and the DTI White Papers focus on exports with solid action. This would require a concerted effort on the part of the government to develop, manage, execute and evaluate programmes to the different needs of the firms at different stages of export development. By using the proposed framework, programmes can be created to help non‐exporters to become exporters, help new exporters to become committed exporters and eliminate the barriers to achieve more export successes.

Export Promotion: A Decision Support Model Approach

Export promotion officials are under increasing pressure to allocate their scarce resources in a way that strengthens their countries’ existing exports while also focusing on new opportunity areas. A key component of a successful export promotion drive is the ability to identify the right foreign markets. To this end, Export Promotion – A Decision Support Model Approach offers a refreshingly practical, yet empirically sound and finely tuned, approach to export market selection. Using a multi-stage filtering process, the decision support model (DSM) described in the book systematically screens markets in terms of a myriad of criteria from political and commercial risk and macroeconomic stability, to market size, accessibility and growth prospects – and generates a list of the most promising and realistic markets for various product categories. This helps export promotion officials to prioritise and plan their various initiatives, and reduces the guesswork that often plagues market selection activities. The DSM has been successfully applied to Belgium, South Africa and Thailand, and those researchers who were involved in rolling out the model in these countries have all contributed to the book. The DSM has over the years undergone a number of revisions in response to evolving business practices and the need to fine-tune the model’s results in the face of growing competition and instability in the global trade arena. A particularly progressive step has been the adaptation and application of the DSM for services in South Africa. Besides offering a detailed description of the DSM, and the various stages in its development and validation, the book also provides an overview of other export market selection methods and how they have contributed to export promotion initiatives in different parts of the world. What emerges from this analysis is that the DSM is far more comprehensive than earlier models in that it takes many more factors into account and processes significantly more data in order to compare and rank order markets. In giving a detailed description of the development and application of the model, the book enables other researchers to replicate and/or adapt the model for different countries that specialise in different products and have different production capabilities. In fact, certain chapters constitute a veritable ‘how to’ guide to developing and testing the model in a variety of contexts, with special emphasis on varying economic conditions and export cultures. As not all countries can produce the same amount of empirical data needed to validate the model, the book also offers insight into how to cope with such data limitations. Another important contribution made by the book is that it turns its attention to how to use the results of the model in a practical sense to develop strong export promotion policies and strategies. This is particularly valuable given the ever-shifting dynamics of the global business environment, and the need for governments to remain responsive to new opportunities and challenges. All these features help to elevate the book from the status of a theoretical treatise to more of an operational manual for export promotion agencies tasked with formulating facts-based and resultsdriven promotional strategies as the precursor to in-depth market and competitive intelligence studies. Export Promotion – A Decision Support Model Approach makes a timeous and important contribution to the literature in the export promotion and development fields, and is highly recommended for academics, foreign policy experts, export promotion officials and export managers.

Challenges for the floriculture industry in a developing country: a South African perspective

The increasing numbers of global floriculture producers, and changes in the basis of competition in this international industry, make it important to evaluate the South African floriculture industrys competitive position. The industry employs more than 17 500 people and provides opportunities for rural employment. This article assesses the challenges facing the South African floriculture industry in the competitive global market, using a framework based on global value chain (GVC) and global commodity chain (GCC) analyses. An empirical study showed that the industry is insufficiently competitive and does not participate to its full potential in the global market. It is recommended that floriculture producers shift their focus from the domestic to the international market, as the domestic market is becoming saturated and its turnover is small. However, as enhancing the industrys competitiveness is a complex endeavour, the industry first needs to address the weaknesses identified.

Obstacles in attracting increased portfolio investment into southern Africa

Measured in terms of foreign participation in its domestic financial markets, the major part of southern Africa has to date been largely isolated from international financial markets and the process of financial globalisation. With the exception of South Africa and, to a lesser extent, Mauritius, the region receives negligible amounts of foreign portfolio investment. For the majority of countries, the main types of foreign capital inflows consist of development assistance and foreign direct investment. Foreign portfolio investment, which has hitherto remained largely untapped, may become important in future, especially in view of the dwindling international development assistance to the region. However, portfolio investment is volatile and can be relatively easily withdrawn, posing some financial risk to an economy that has to be managed. This article identifies and assesses possible obstacles to foreign portfolio investment in the region, which could be addressed over time in order to improve the regions competitiveness for foreign investment.

Is there a link between BRIC foreign direct investment and SADC export performance

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries have agreed to strengthen their economic ties, thus paving the way for enhanced trade and investment performance. South Africas strategic value in BRICS is that it is a gateway to the opportunity-rich Southern African Development Community (SADC). By using South Africa as a production hub for exports to the surrounding region, foreign investors would have ready access to neighbouring markets. This article addresses the question of whether, and in what ways, foreign direct investment (FDI) from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries to the SADC influences the SADCs export performance. A series of empirical analyses revealed a positive causation between BRIC FDI and SADC exports, offering a clear incentive for the SADC to rejuvenate its trade and investment policies and structures, and strengthen its ties with BRIC countries in the interests of attracting more FDI and building a strong and sustainable export sector.

Identifying Thailand’s high-potential export opportunities in ASEAN+3 countries

Purpose This paper aims to identify Thailand’s realistic export opportunities (REOs) in the ASEAN+3 countries (i.e. ASEAN, Greater China, Japan and South Korea), which together constitute an economically dynamic region and a strategic export destination for Thailand. Furthermore, the paper seeks to determine the extent to which Thailand already has a share in ASEAN+3 countries and where new opportunities lie. This allows the formulation of appropriate export promotion strategies for Thailand. Design/methodology/approach The methodology used is a decision support model (DSM) which uses an extensive data-filtering system to systematically screen and eliminate less-promising product–country combinations to ultimately reveal high-potential REOs. Product–country combinations are screened on the basis of country risk; macro-economic country performance; market potential in terms of import growth and import market size; and market access conditions, including market concentration and the existence of trade barriers. The thus narrowed-down REOs are categorised according to Thailand’s relative market share in, and the characteristics of, the identified import markets. Findings The study reveals that the ASEAN+3 countries account for about 40 per cent of the total potential export value of Thailand’s REOs in the world, with China leading the way (12.45 per cent), followed by Japan (8.56 per cent) and South Korea (6.23 per cent). However, Thailand has a relatively small or intermediately small market share in the majority of these REOs, pointing to the need for more offensive and exploratory export promotion strategies. Research limitations/implications The ASEAN+3 countries – given that they are an abundant source of REOs for Thailand and are in Thailand’s “backyard” – should receive more focused attention and resources in government export promotion efforts. The recent launch of the ASEAN Economic Community and the proposed establishment of an East Asia Free Trade Area lend weight to the idea of Thailand adopting a strong regional focus in its export activities. Practical implications The insights derived from the study are valuable for export promotion officials, industry representatives and practising exporters alike, as they constitute an easy-to-digest snapshot of high-potential REOs for Thailand in the ASEAN+3 region. This makes for more efficient planning and prioritising of export development activities, and a more streamlined approach to resource allocation. Originality/value Export promotion shows diminishing returns and requires sustainable strategies and interventions. The value in this paper lies in its description of an innovative market selection tool, the DSM, which is able to process and filter high volumes of information and arrive at a shortlist of high-potential REOs for Thailand in the ASEAN+3 countries. The paper represents a concise case study of the DSM in practice, which should be of particular interest to export promotion agencies, industry associations and both new and more established exporting countries.

Breaking the ‘big data’ barrier when selecting agricultural export markets: an innovative approach

ABSTRACT A country’s comparative advantage is not only dependent on factor endowments. History, random events (wars, oil crisis, sanctions, etc.) and past government policies are important factors shaping a country’s trade patterns. Such factors are recognised in both traditional and new trade theory. Therefore the formulation (and implementation) of industrial and agricultural export policy has to be cognisant of these factors. In the search for new markets or new product opportunities in existing markets to inform both trade policy making and business decision making, a major challenge is making sense of the huge volumes of available product and market information, which is one of the manifestations of “big data”. Using an example from the South African fruit industry, this paper illustrates how the big data challenge can be tackled using the TRADE-Decision Support Model methodology. By means of this methodology an initial 1221 realistic export opportunties were identified in 107 markets. Of the overall 54 products in the fruit and nuts HS chapter 08 category, 22 have “major potential”, representing about US

Competitive Intelligence in a Foreign Environment: German and Canadian Firms Compared

3.5 billion across 102 countries. Most of the potential for “mature” products lies in “new” markets from a South African agriculture exports perspective. Of this potential 80 per cent is found in 10 products (including grapes, apples, mandarins, and lemons and limes). Some non-traditional products such as bananas, cashew nuts, kiwifruit and guavas were identified. Europe still represents approximately half of the total estimated realistic potential in the short term, estimated at US