Assessing competitiveness of international contracting firms from the managerial perspective by using Analytic Network Process

Abstract

Contracting firms need to assess their competitive position in order to sustain their existence under fierce competition and an increasingly globalized business environment. Competitiveness has been investigated widely by both scholars and practitioners. However, it cannot be assessed easily and measured directly. This study aims to develop a framework to assess competitiveness of international contracting firms from the managerial perspective. In this context, competitiveness factors have been identified based on an extensive literature review. These factors are grouped under nine categories including effectiveness of strategies, managerial capabilities, organizational capabilities, efficiency of technical resources, efficiency of human resources, efficiency of financial resources, effectiveness of relationships, favorability of host country conditions, and favorability of market conditions. An Analytic Network Process (ANP) model is proposed to analyze the interrelations among the model parameters and to compute their importance weights. Analysis results suggest that "effectiveness of strategies" is the most influential cluster that contributes to the competitiveness of the contractors, followed by "organizational capabilities" and "managerial capabilities", respectively. The applicability of the proposed model is tested on ten projects, and the results are found to be satisfactory. The findings of this study are expected to guide contractors in developing appropriate strategies to pursue in international markets and selecting right projects to bid for.