Babaiev I. Competitiveness of products of enterprises of the flour milling industry

The dissertation is a completed comprehensive study, which is devoted to the generalization of theoretical and methodological principles and the development of scientific and practical recommendations for increasing the competitiveness of the products of enterprises of the flour milling industry of Ukraine. The dissertation presents the results of a comprehensive study of the state of competitiveness of the products of enterprises of the flour milling industry of Ukraine, its potential and ways of improvement under conditions of globalization. The scientific novelty of the obtained results are the deepening of the theoretical and methodological foundations, as well as the development of scientific and practical recommendations for increasing the competitiveness of the products of enterprises of the flour milling industry of Ukraine. The following tasks were set and solved in the study: to reveal the economic essence of the competitiveness of the products of flour milling enterprises, to determine its criteria; to identify the main factors of the competitiveness of the products of enterprises of the flour milling industry; generalize the theoretical and methodological bases of evaluating the competitiveness of products of enterprises of the flour milling industry; to analyze the current state of production and export of products of flour milling enterprises and to determine the possibilities of realizing its potential; to identify the features of competitive conditions in the market of flour milling products; to assess the level of competitiveness of products of enterprises of the flour milling industry on the domestic and world markets; to identify directions for strengthening the competitiveness of the products of enterprises of the flour milling industry as a part of added value chains; to consider the competitiveness potential of organic flour production; to determine modern marketing tools for increasing the competitiveness of products of enterprises of the flour milling industry Based on the analysis of the scientific literature on competition theories, the stages of its research were summarized and added by the socio-technological stage, taking into account modern trends in marketing, the social environment, and the global economic space. There was determined that competitiveness is a complex and multi-component concept, which is applied both to products, enterprises, industries, regions, and national economies. The content of the category “product competitiveness” is considered as a set of product properties that ensure its compliance with consumer requirements and make it more attractive than competitors’ products on the market, which enables the manufacturer to penetrate, maintain or expand their positions on the market, ensure sustainable development. The scientific publications on the components (criteria) of competitiveness has been summarized and added, the following components of competitiveness of the products of the flour milling enterprises are proposed: sustainability, cost-price, efficiency, product quality and its compliance with standards, innovativeness; social responsibility of the producer; environmental friendliness; availability and completeness of product information; reputation of the producer; fair competition. The author proved that the formation of competitiveness is under the influence of many factors, which objectively complicates its management. A generalized classification of factors of competitiveness of enterprises of the flour milling industry by groups is developed, it includes following group of factors: 1) resource-related; 2) innovative; 3) microeconomic; 4) sectoral; 5) infrastructure and logistics; 6) macroeconomic; 7) institutional and regulatory; 8) foreign trade; 9) social; 10) ecological. It was noted that competitiveness is a multi-component characteristic of products, enterprise, region, industry, country, and depends on factors of time and place. Based on the review of scientific works on the assessment of competitiveness, it was found that a unified approach to measuring the level of competitiveness has not been formed in economic science and practice, as well as method and list of indicators to evaluate the competitiveness of products. Competitiveness assessment methods were grouped by the object of assessment (methods of positioning, competitive advantages, competitiveness potential), by mode of assessment (quantitative, qualitative), by the method of results presentation (discrete; tabular; matrix; ranking; graphic), as well as assessment indicators were grouped by the number of characteristics: (single; group; integral); according to the method of calculation (average values; sums; ratio; indices; expert evaluations; point evaluation; interval evaluation; ranking), according to the criteria of product competitiveness.