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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20534/ESR-16-9.10-261-264
Lleshi Samir, Phd (c)., Lani Lirim, E-mail: samir.lleshi@gmail.com
Quality as a determinant factor of increased competitiveness and export growth (Case study: Kosova)
Abstract: The main purpose in drafting of this paper is to empirically analyses and treat the quality and in enhancing of the competitiveness and export companies exporting in Kosovo. The records that are used in the paper are the primary data, namely through the questionnaires in a particular sample of exporting businesses in Kosovo. The quality nowadays is understood as a process that should be developed steadily, whereas the acquired data during this process serves to improve the products and services in the future, so that the current products and services will remain sustainable for customers aiming to return the t customers who have lost the confidence in those products and to obtain new customers. The general conclusion of the paper is that the management of the quality is a determining factor in the growth of exports in the exporting companies in Kosovo.
Keywords: Quality, Export, Performance, Product, Safety, Certification.
1. Introduction
The manufacturing businesses are oriented in the strategic quality of management, where the quality is an integral part of strategic planning and in agreement with the entire management of the organization. This provides benefits, which is a strong competitive weapon, but increasingly being oriented towards the requirements of the clients (users) who should be satisfied. In many sectors, the economy of the countries in the region is not able to be a serious competitor, whereas the sector of the food industry, countries such as Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro have potential and can produce a large domestic consumption and to make attempts for entry into the European market. However, the challenges and obligations in this regard are very difficult. The European market is very strict toward the quality and meeting of standards for products and to enter into this market, they should initially fulfill of these conditions, even though many companies from these countries have already witnessed such a demand has been is fulfilled and can penetrate freely in the European market, this is evidenced with achieved engagements for export of these products.
According to the ISO 9000 standards, the quality is comprised of the characteristics of the product or service that meets the appropriate requirements [7]. Compliance with standards and norms management opportunities are preserved and developed and production costs are reduced. Thus the requirements of customers and the market to increase toward the quality and raise of the staff ethics, which also results in a higher quality product or service. Effective quality management can enhance competitive abilities of the organization and provide strategic advantages, whether it will reflect the perception of the management quality [5].
The competitive ability of the company in the market largely determines the level of the quality of the product, regardless of whether it is being produced for the already familiar or unfamiliar
buyer. For this reason, it is very important the link between the sales department (which is best familiar with market opportunities) and services of the preparation for production and which with its solutions should try to resist more the existing competition in the market. The quality control is essential for organizational success and brings in the improving profitability benefits, such as; the satisfying clients and increasing competitive advantage [11]. In this sense, the link of technological systems is important where the constructive ideas of market products are implemented, because on the contrary, it could increase the cost of the quality, and cause a higher price of the product, and a drop the competition. On the other hand, lower quality compared to competitive products offered for specific products, usually causes progressive decline in open market price. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a level of quality that will be balanced with the price offered by the market for the quality [8].
It should be further noted that Kosovo has made significant progress in terms of infrastructure quality in the recent years. The lack of awareness about the importance of certification, and other elements of quality infrastructure and drag in the adoption of international standards that directly leads to the fact that the products in Kosovo are not in line with EU standards, or a very small number of them. By continuously monitoring the process, the manufacturing organisation could prevent defect items to be processed in the next stage and to take immediate corrective action once a process is found to be out of control [9]. On the other hand, the constituting and the development of quality infrastructure is one of the important steps toward EU affiliation. Competition in Kosovo is a major problem for many businesses, for the simple fact that in many sectors and the activities it appears as unfair, which means that the risk of competition is over the normal range. Another element worth mentioning here is great concentration of many businesses in few sectors.
2. Literature Overview
A manufacturing company before deciding to start with the manufacturing of a product, it must formulate first what it is going to produce and offer to the market. This means that, at the same time, the enterprise must have a position on the external appearance of the product, its price, product performance, product application areas, and so on. Many companies have traced the quality of finished goods to the quality of incoming supply in order to prevent adverse outcomes [12]. The choice of level quality product is of particular importance, which is an economic problem. One of the best ways to increase and expand the trade activities in each country is to enhance the level of quality [6]. Thus, when selecting not only the market should be familiar, but also the technical capabilities of the product. The evolution of the main factors of competitiveness that indicate in the first half of the twentieth century, the competitive advantage of companies was represented by lower prices achieved on account of a cheaper workforce. Competitiveness is synonymous with a firm's long-run profit performance and its ability to compensate its employees and provide superior returns to its owners [2]. Starting with the 1950s, another factor of competitiveness becomes decisive, namely automated production. In parallel with this, two other factors increase in significance: the ability of the company to adapt to market demands and quality products and services, respectively [14]. Namely, if the enterprise produces relaying on the order of the buyer, the level of product quality is determined by the applicant, whereas the enterprise should have a duty to maintain the required level of the quality. However, it is very important, particularly when it comes to the production for familiar buyers, who do not hold up the required approval for the quality of the product, without prior knowledge of the technological capabilities of production systems, because, in this case, there's the possibility of large losses due to the inability to offer quality that is agreed, which more often manifests itself through slow delivery of the shipment through higher prices for products, and ultimately, loss of the company reputation [4].
At the present time, the buyer in the export market expects an excellent quality product, with the intention to pay only the price that is more favorable than the competition. The definition of quality by author Stevenson is acceptable and says: „Quality is the ability ofproducts and services that consistently meet or exceed customer expectations". The concept of quality can be examined in terms of products, services and processes [13]. Qualitative characteristics products, affecting the competitive advantage through differentiation of products of a particular manufacturer's product competitors. The economic restructuring process cannot be designed without taking into account the criteria and costs of quality. Considering the consequences of poor quality, it can be stated that "quality is free" [10]. The cost ofpoor quality varies from one firm to another. Practically, non-quality management consists in optimizing the effectiveness of the company by treating the causes of anomalies [3].
The quality of products is a major market challenge that manufacturers face in our country. On the markets of developed countries, low cost, mainly so far our main export product is no longer the dominant factor of competitiveness. What the modern market conditions enables the successful sale of the product is its quality, safety, design and so on. Also, on the world market, can be placed specific product categories, only if they are made in accordance with the so-called. Harmonized standards. The advantages of product evaluation and certification consist in [1].
• providing confidence for leadership, customers or the authorities that the products satisfy the requirements of safety and qual-
ity by providing the opinion of objective and impartial third party certification body;
• analysing the characteristics of the products, particularly those that can influence the health and safety of users in all phases of the product lifecycle (from design to after-sales service);
• Continuous improvement of product, as body and procedures apply to schemes which take account of existing legislation and standards;
• identifying weaknesses related to manufacturing and testing by competent and impartial persons;
• optimizing the quality/price ratio, reducing the risk of noncompliances due to regular surveillance quality.
3. Methodology of the paper
The methodology of the paper is oriented from the primary data source, through the questionnaire. The collected data were obtained from a random sample in the entire territory of Kosovo, which are included in this research activity 51 exporting companies. The questionnaire is oriented towards the building of research needs; where in some questions we have used the linker scale (1-4), to determine the importance of several factors in exporting activity. The questionnaire provides sufficient data to address the problem presented in the paper, which included the sizes of companies in three categories, small, medium and large, in order to ensure data from all sizes ofbusi-ness, where the number of workers is also categorized, according to applicable legislation for businesses in Kosovo, whereas the rest of the questionnaire provides data on the role of quality management in export growth and the improvement of staff and products.
4. Hypotheses
Hypotheses are set up on the basis of theoretical and empirical literature and which will be based on the results of the questionnaire. The hypothesis of this paper is:
H1 - Performance of exporting companies is affected by the number of employees;
The number of employees is a fundamental prerequisite in creating of s exporting products channel and services, particularly in Kosovo, where businesses face a lack of professional staff.
H2 - Certification ofproducts with international standard increases production quality;
In the contemporary world, the need for certification ofproducts with international standards it is a basic requirement, because the market ofthe European Union as a basic requirement for acceptance of imported products, requires relevant certification in certain areas, and also for exporting companies in Kosovo it is a necessity ofexporting activity.
H3 - Enhancing of quality ofproducts increases the safety of consumer;
Consumer safety is one of the vital points of quality assurance in an exporting company, so it is as domestic demand, as well as external customer demand.
H4 - Enhancing of export firm is affected by the implementation of the system of quality management
The system of quality management is a prerequisite for exporting companies to succeed in the foreign market, because the market of the Balkans and Europe has a "wild" in offering of similar products, but what will differ the certain product against other products is the development of quality management system.
5. Empirical measurement
The data used in the paper are from the developed questionnaire by exporting companies to Kosovo, where to treat the paper hypotheses we have used parametric tests, namely the F-test statistics and correlation, which are treated in statistical software program V.20 SPSS.
6. Results of empirical tests
In treating of analyses we have used 3scales of significance level a =0.001: a = 0.05, and a = 0.10, or e = 1%; e = e = 5% and 10%.
Table 1. F-test analysis in economic variables between "performance" and "Number of Employees, where the level of signifi-
cance is.000 or at the level of 1%, which supports the performance hypothesis of exporting companies by number of affected employees, that is for the exporting companies in Kosovo to achieve a better performance in exercising of exporting activity, they should have a sufficient number and qualitative staff employees.
Tabela 1. - Anova test (F-test)
Performance Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 29.О34 3 9.678 6О.841 .000***
Within Groups 7.476 47 .159
Total 36.51О 5О
Source: Calculation in SPSS.
Note: * Significant in 10%; ** Significant in 5%; *** Significant in 1%.
Tabela 2. - Correlate (Bivariate)
Performance Quality Certification of Consumer
of products products Safety
Pearson Correlation 1 .844 .842 .9ОО
Performance Sig. (2-tailed) .ООО .ООО .ООО
N 51 51 51 51
Pearson Correlation .844 1 .844 .893
Quality of products Sig. (2-tailed) .ООО .ООО .ООО
N 51 51 51 51
Pearson Correlation .842 .844 1 .854
Certification of products Sig. (2-tailed) .ООО .ООО .ООО
N 51 51 51 51
Pearson Correlation .9ОО .893 .854 1
Consumer Safety Sig. (2-tailed) .ООО .ООО .ООО
N 51 51 51 51
Source: Calculation in SPSS.
Table 2. There is a correlation between 4 economic variables: performance, quality of products, product certification and safety of consumers. In Table there is a reflection of how these variables interact with each other, in the interaction correlation part between certification product and quality of products, where we have found a positive correlation, indicating that the growth of certification of products increases the quality of products, as the bond correlation is 844, which approves the hypothesis 2 The certification of products with international standards increases the quality of products, which is an indicator showing that the need
Tabela 3. - Anova test (F-test)
for certification of products with international standards increases the quality of products during the application phase in Kosovo and is an important part in exporting products. Positive correlation between the variables of quality product and safety of the consumer (.893), 3 approves the hypothesis that the increasing the quality of products increases safety of the consumer. Table 2 From all positive correlation links, the strongest correlative link is between performance and safety of the consumer, which shows that by increasing the performance we'll have the increase in safety of the consumer.
SN exports increase Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 2.744 2 1.372 12.529 .000***
Within Groups 5.256 48 .110
Total 8.ООО 5О
Source: Calculation in SPSS.
Note: * Significant in 10%; ** Significant in 5%; *** Signifi
Table 3. F-test analysis between the "export growth" and "quality management system". The results show that growth of exports affected by QMS (Quality Management System), because significance level is at the rate of 1%, respectively.000. The results in this table show that QMS (Quality Management System) is a determining factor in the growth of exports in exporting Kosovo companies.
7. Conclusions
In this paper we have analyzed the empirical data from the questionnaire with exporting companies in Kosovo, where this sector in Kosovo has begun to undertake the first steps of development, after many blocking economic processes and other uneconomic factors and in this way we are able to conclude from the analyzed data with parametric tests that management of quality is determining
t in 1%.
factors in the growth of exports in Kosovo, where the exporting companies in Kosovo should achieve this through the application of certification of products with international standards and to increase the performance, which shall affect the growth of quality product and safety of the consumers.
In the current socio-economic context, product quality has become the determinant of the competitiveness of enterprises as it ensures adaptability to increasingly dynamic market requirements. Product quality is expressed by a set of features made either by contracts, orders or requests in direct relationships between customer and producer, it is explained by standards or rules or exists as a state of affairs caused by similar products present at a given time on the market.
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