Jote, Netsanet (2014) Impact of Supply Chain and Industrial Cluster on the Competitive Advantage of Ethiopian Leather Sector. PhD thesis, Addis Ababa University.
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Abstract
Global competitiveness of countries is an ever-growing concern for governments, firms and academic researchers. To be competitive, the Ethiopian Government identified priority sectors for diversification and industrial development. One of the sectors that Ethiopia seems to have a clear comparative advantage in manufacturing is the leather sector. The industry is highly labour-intensive in nature and its technological requirements are fairly unsophisticated. These characteristics combined with Ethiopia‟s large resource base for hides and skins could make the leather sector expand production and achieve competitiveness at the international level. In Ethiopia, the production and sale of leather products are quite limited. It is estimated that more than half of the hides and skins entering the commercial processing chain is below the expected quality. This is due to poor animal husbandry practices, poor slaughtering practices, poor storage and preservation methods, backward technology and lack of skilled workforce in modern leather technology. In general, the problems can be categorized as weak actors at each stage of the supply chain and weak linkages between successive actors of the sector‟s supply chain. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to assess the existing challenges of the Ethiopian leather sector at each tier of the supply chain and to develop a model that integrates supply chain and industrial cluster theories to increase the competitiveness of Ethiopian leather in the world market. To achieve the above objective, this research used both qualitative and quantitative methods and a combination of both primary and secondary sources of data. The research conducts an extensive literature review of Supply Chain Management (SCM), Industrial Cluster (IC), integration between SCM and IC, Cluster Supply Chain (CSC) and the Ethiopian leather sector. It also collects primary and secondary data from farmers, abattoirs, households, raw hide and skin collectors, local/traditional tanners, modern tanners, leather related industries and governmental and non-governmental organizations have also been gathered.Using the primary and secondary data industrial clusters were identified at four stages: animal husbandry, slaughtering, raw hides and skins collectors and manufacturing. The initial stage of cluster development is cluster identification. To identify clusters FuzzyAHP approach is used. This is the first study of its kind to use Fuzzy-AHP for cluster identification. Following the identification, Sensitivity Analysis was performed to test and validate the results. Besides, the Pareto Analysis to prioritize the alternatives, the Generic Benchmarking for justification and argumentation are used. Finally, System Dynamics (SD) modelling is applied to model the existing and proposed Ethiopian leather sector supply chain. The new model shows the integration of supply chain and industrial cluster theories in the Ethiopian leather sector. The findings of the research show that the problems of the Ethiopian leather sector starts from animal husbandry stage and goes up to the production of finished leather products. These problems exist at each tier of the supply chain and hinder competitiveness in the global market. To deal with this problem, it was stated that this research had to identify a cluster at each tier of the sector supply chain. As a result, the following areas are selected: North Shewa for animal husbandry cluster and Modjo for abattoir, raw hides and skins collectors and tanning clusters. Furthermore, the research tried to develop a model which is the first of its kind for Ethiopian leather sector. The model shows the integration of supply chain and industrial cluster theories. The newly introduced model shortens the marketing channel of Ethiopian leather sector. Also helping to minimize delays at each stage, in addition, the introduction of industrial clusters added other parameters (for example support services). The simulation results of the newly developed model showed an improvement in the competitiveness of the Ethiopian leather sector. Therefore, based on the findings of the study the following two major recommendations are forwarded to the Ethiopian leather sector. First, the sector should develop a cluster at each tier of the supply chain. Second, the sector should adopt the new model which integrates supply chain and industrial cluster concepts to increase the competitiveness of the sector. Detailed cluster development process for each identified clusters and testing the new model using other parameters and other sectors would be research directions that can be followed in the future.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Supply chain, Industrial cluster, Leather sector, Ethiopia |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management H Social Sciences > HF Commerce Q Science > Q Science (General) S Agriculture > SF Animal culture T Technology > TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery |
| Divisions: | Africana |
| Depositing User: | Andriamparany Edilbert RANOARIVONY |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Nov 2018 10:16 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Nov 2018 10:16 |
| URI: | http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/7492 |
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