competitive advantage

Over the past decades, there has been a trend towards a growing interest of business representatives in their reputation and its impact on the results of operations and, accordingly, development for the future. Awareness of the importance and value of reputation among the leaders of modern business makes it necessary to find ways to build an undeniable reputation, strengthen it among stakeholders and use it effectively.

There are many approaches to identifying, analyzing and enhancing competitiveness, which is a complex characteristic of regions, countries, industries, enterprises, and commodities. With prospects of Ukraine’s European integration, we consider the EU as a key benchmark for enhancing its global competitiveness.

In the XXI century we re-evaluate the role of human capital, education, science and the knowledge factor in the development of enterprises, regions and countries, as well as the enhancement of the economy / country competitiveness. These factors actualize the problem of defining the concept of “competitiveness of the country”, taking into account all those new meaningful characteristics that it has acquired in recent years within the framework of modern economic science.

In the article the relevance of the formation and achievement of competitive advantages of a separate enterprise at the present stage is substantiated. The purpose of the research is to develop a mechanism for applying benchmarking techniques to form the competitive advantages of the enterprise.

 In such a climate, competition becomes ever more fierce and manufacturers must seize every opportunity and competitive advantage they can find.Increasingly, such advantages—along with new threats of disruption—come from digital technologies. A critical element of manufacturing innovation will be in the form of new business models, particularly regarding services and value-added offerings. In effect, simply making a good product may no longer be enough. Increasingly, what happens after the product is sold looms ever larger.

Offer commoditization is increasingly common market phenomenon. The stronger competition in the market, the more difficult is to differentiate the product/service – as a result, price competition intensifies and price is the key buying criteria. The paper presents the essence of commodity trap and the three-stages process of escaping from the consequences of this phenomenon.