Quality, Price, and Competition Strategy Effects on Performance of Soft Drink Enterprises in Rwanda

Amidst market performance challenges of declining customer numbers and sales for some soft drinks enterprises in Rwanda, that has caused a big concern for academics and professionals, the study set to empirically investigate the effect of quality, price and competition strategies on sales and customer retention performance for these enterprises. The study was quantitative and cross-sectional where researchers obtained data at a single point in time on more than one case. A sample size of 118 marketing managers was taken from these enterprises in the central districts of Kigali that produce carbonated drinks, mineral water and juice. Due to corona virus pandemic, virtual means of data collection were used through telephone-based questionnaire survey. Despite the positive and significant relationship between quality and price strategies with market performance, ( =0.500, t=1.09, p<0.01) for quality, ( =0.23, t=3.05, p<0.01) for price, results for competition strategies ( =0.23, t=3.05, p=0.281), show nonsignificant relationship with market performance in the studied context. This finding manifests a big gap in managing competition and therefore advise these enterprises to revisit their competition management decisions and make investment in those positioning alternatives that impact on consumer perceptions.

WORKING-OUT OF THE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN PJSC "GAZPROM" IN AN UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT

The article is devoted to the issues of working-out and adjustment of the development strategy in PJSC "Gazprom". The results of the strategic analysis of the macro- and microenvironment in the organization are presented. Key problems in the company's activities are identified. An approach to the implementation of multi-criteria assessment and the choice of the basic competition strategy of the organization is proposed.

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP IN FORMING A COMPETITION STRATEGY FOR SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

The aim of the article is to determine the main changes in the content of the components of the competition strategy of small restaurants in a pandemic crisis and in the post-pandemic period. In a pandemic crisis, the level of uncertainty in the business conditions of small businesses is increasing. Businesses should actively respond to new realities of development. The implementation of business processes of small enterprises in a pandemic requires the adaptation of strategic mechanisms for doing business to the business environment. The experience of work, application of variants of strategy of competition of the small enterprises which are carrying out activity in providing with food and drinks in the regional market is analyzed. It is determined that the approaches to the formation of competition strategy should take into account the opportunities provided by strategic partnership as a flexible form of cooperation. The essence of strategic partnerships as a component of competition strategy of small enterprises is considered. It is noted that the basis of the partnership strategy in the implementation of the competition strategy is complementarity and synergy. It is proved that strategic partnership can lead to the creation of new competitive advantages. The necessity of introduction of strategic partnership in a strategic set of a small enterprise is argued. It is emphasized that the strategic partnership as part of the competition strategy contributes to the creation of social capital of small businesses, which is important for activities in the provision of food and beverages. It is noted that in the framework of the partnership strategy the interests of the partners and the possibility of making quick changes in their relations should be provided. The components of the partnership strategy of small restaurant enterprises have been formed. The expedient variants of realization of strategy of partnership by the enterprises of restaurant economy are defined. The obtained research results can be used for further development of the theory of strategic management of small restaurant enterprises and applied in their practical activity.

The Salience of Traditional Moral Values: Bolsonaro’s Electoral Competition Strategy on Twitter

This article analyzes the electoral competition strategy adopted by the Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro on Twitter, supported by the saliency theory – where candidates compete by emphasizing different topics and selecting issues from a universal agenda to focus the campaign’s attention and efforts. The salience Bolsonaro’s winning campaign attributed to values during the 2018 presidential election. Values are attitudinal guidelines related to different social, religious, economic, and political concepts, covering various topics on views about what is desirable or undesirable in a society. The study used content analysis to explore and categorize a corpus of 809 tweets posted in the account @jairbolsonaro. The data was mined by applying computational intelligence methods and using the public API and the Python Twint library. Four dimensions of cultural variance found in the World Values Survey were used to establish the categories: traditional values, rational-secular values, survival values, and self-expression values. The results show that the content of Bolsonaro’s electoral competition strategy was based on traditional moral values and the campaign’s format was developed primarily via social media.

Steel Industry in Turkey: Progress and Challenges

While Turkey was the world’s 10th biggest steel producer in 2001, she has become the 7th biggest producer globally and largest steel producer in Europe in 2020. In fact, she was the third fastest growing steel producer in the world between 2001 and 2011, after China and India. Steel production in Turkey has increased significantly since 2001, growing from 15 million tons (mt) in 2001 to 35.8 million tons in 2020. In addition to the strong domestic demand and dynamic steel using industries, Turkey’s well-placed position also supports exports and production. This article suggests employing descriptive methodology focusing on Turkish Steel Industry between 2010-2020. The authors conduct descriptive research using case study method. Both quatitative and quanlitative analysis gives a holistic understanding of the research question. We began with a discussion of how Turkish steel industry has changed and affected by the rise of protectionism in the twenty first century. Then we will focus on the competition strategy in steel industy based on the trade relationship between EU, USA and Asia. A final section summarizes our argument and findings and offers suggestions for policy implications. The paper seeks to understand the role of Turkish steel industy both in Turkish economy and global economy. We anchor our collective interest in competition strategy and trade performance in the last decade. After Covid 19, the world community faces many unknowns. As a result, we aim to fill the gap with the mapping the future appearance of steel industy in Turkey by evaluating the possibilities.

Competitive strategy selection in retail E-Commerce using IF AHP & TOPSIS methodology

Retail e-commerce has been growing over the years by attracting entrepreneurs’ attention. Increasing interest in retail e-commerce has affected competition and made it necessary to choose the right competition strategy. This study aims at selecting the right competition strategy to be successful in retail e-commerce under vague and imprecise conditions. AHP and TOPSIS methods are used under intuitionistic fuzzy environment, which allows decision-makers to reflect their hesitation in their judgements. After a literature review on retail, e-commerce, and competition strategy, the main criteria and sub-criteria of multicriteria retail e-commerce alternative selection are presented. Cost leadership, differentiation, and focusing strategies are evaluated as competitive strategies, based on the opinions of experts collected through a questionnaire. The results of the study show that the strategies are ranked as differentiation, focus, and cost leadership strategies, respectively.

The joint evolution of movement and competition strategies

Competition typically takes place in a spatial context, but eco-evolutionary models rarely address the the joint evolution of movement and competition strategies. Here we investigate a spatially explicit producer-scrounger model where consumers can either forage on a heterogeneous resource landscape or steal prey from conspecifics (kleptoparasitism). We compare different scenarios for the interaction of movement and competition strategies. In all cases, movement strategies evolve rapidly and consistently across replicate simulations. At equilibrium, foragers do not match the prey input rate, contrary to 'ideal free' predictions. We show that this is related to the intrinsic difficulty of moving effectively on a depleted landscape with few reliable cues for movement. The evolved movement strategies of kleptoparasites differ markedly from those of foragers. Even within each competition strategy, polymorphisms emerge, corresponding to individual differences in movement rules. Our study emphasises the advantages of a mechanistic approach when studying competition in a spatial context.

Did you hear what she did to me? Female friendship victimization disclosures offer reputational advantages

Four studies (N = 1,653) tested the hypothesis that sensitivity to victimization in friendships is a mechanism through which women covertly transmit negative social information (gossip) about same-sex peers. In Study 1, women were more likely than men to question a same-sex friendship following violations denoting a friend’s lack of commitment or kindness. In Study 2, women were more likely than men to report disclosing such friendship violations to others. In Study 3, first-person disclosures about one’s own victimization were more trusted and approved than third-person disclosures about others’ victimization, suggesting such statements are not readily recognized as gossip. In Study 4a, men and women reported their female friends disclosed all types of friendship violations more frequently than did their male friends, but especially those surrounding commitment and replacement risk. In Study 4b, female perpetrators suffered worse reputational damage than did male perpetrators following divulgence of their poor treatment of same-sex friends. Taken together, these results suggest women disclose their victimization by same-sex friends, and such disclosures effectively impair same-sex peers’ reputations. These patterns raise the possibility that the greater fragility of female (versus male) friendships results, in part, from this effective, yet covert intrasexual competition strategy.