Methodology Research of Competitiveness and Sample Application for Turkey's Defense Industry

Abstract

Purpose - The main purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology to analyze the competitiveness based on the diamond model and constructing a composite index; the secondary aim is to apply this methodology to the national index of Turkey's defense industry.

Design/methodology/approach - Instead of providing the results based only on diamond, a composite index study was carried out. The collected variables were distributed using subject-groups under determinants via an expert opinion survey. The variables were analyzed with alternative methods of imputation, normalization and aggregation. Factor analysis (FA) was performed with the aggregated values of each subject to find the years' clusters.

Findings - Turkey's diamond model indicated an improvement in defense industry between 1998-2010. And, FA revealed the clusters as 1998-2000, 2001-2007, 2008-2010. It was found that Turkey had an advantage in demand conditions but needs to give higher importance to factor conditions. In addition, the key provisions were catered to the issues related to government and the defense industry.

Research limitations/implications - Turkey's competitiveness structure between 1998-2010 were researched.

Originality/value - This study provides a qualitative approach of the composite index to the quantitative side of the diamond model.