An investigation into value chains within the printing industry

Abstract

Organisations found themselves competing in a dynamic market environment. For this reason business turned towards the value chains within their companies so that they can meet the ever increasing demanding customers while improving their competitive advantage. In order to evaluate if this condition is also being encountered locally and what the perceptions are about this whole thing the choice fell upon the printing sector. For this study to be realised literature on the subject was consulted and amid the issues that arose were the value chain management, its measuring so that companies can assess if they are reaching the desired competitive advantage and the importance of having a flexible value chain. Afterwards, four companies were chosen and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were made. Although the interviewees’ answers on some aspects differed a little from the literature review and this was due to their size limitations, on other aspects they agreed with the scholarly authors’ findings. Amongst the agreeing statements with the experts chosen there is the issue of flexibility where it is emphasised by both the authors and the respondents. On the disagreeing note there is the issue of the value chain measurement where two interviewees declared that they did not retain it as something meaningful for their day to day operations. Another point is that even though these four companies work on the same level in terms of manufacturing processes, they all struggle to retain their competitive advantage through strategies that some are common to the four of them but others are individually designed.