DETERMINANTS OF INTER-FIRMS’EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS: CASE OF INDIAN CARPET INDUSTRY

This paper has tried to understand the determinants of export competitiveness in the thriving carpet industry of India. The data for firm competitiveness has been collected from Bhadohi and Mirzapur districts of Uttar Pradesh, together famously known as the carpet belt of India. A total 100 questionnaires were used and after data cleaning, final dataset had 96 questionnaires. The competitiveness of the firm was explored through five-point Likert scale and 18 variables were identified. Through Exploratory Factor Analysis, the determinants of export competitiveness were reduced into four major constructs namely quality management and product differentiation, focus on the foreign market, state support, licensing and other non-tariff restrictions and networking. These constructs explain 87% of the export competitiveness of the carpet firms.