Abstract
<p>With the evolution of globalization, multinational companies face increasing competition on national and international markets. As a result, they seek to implement proper strategies to maximize capacity and competitiveness. This article asks whether a multinational company in medical devices has the strategic potential to transform its procurement strategy to embrace a local sourcing concept to gain competitiveness while retaining engineering origin. Study results from the medical-device industry show that attributes delivered by German origin can improve competitiveness. A significant majority of customers see the importance in the “Made in Germany” label. Customers also tend to accept the conception of local production that retains German engineering. The medical-device industry represents several branches in areas such as quality and technology. The results of this paper address product marketing, product strategy, and decision-makers dealing with sourcing alternatives. The results suggest that the strategy of pairing local production with German engineering is desirable to enhance competitiveness.</p>
Highlights
1.1 Research IntroductionThis research focuses on a typical situation of a German manufacturer of medical products acting at international level within the medical-device industry
The aspects of quality, time and price for medical products from Germany deliver some disadvantages. International respondents rate their local production quality as average. This could mean that respondents are not familiar with the quality of products with the classification “Made in Germany” in this sector, or that respondents have different product requirements than are provided through local sourcing, so that the quality of “Made in Germany” products remains respected and required
It was found that a majority of respondents would accept the conception of local production retaining German engineering
Summary
1.1 Research IntroductionThis research focuses on a typical situation of a German manufacturer of medical products acting at international level within the medical-device industry. Due to limited growth potential in the current markets, the focus lies in emerging markets. Based on the studies of Oltmanns (2013), Western companies can expect to achieve 70% of their future profits in emerging markets. Those markets have divergent customer behaviors as well as different market conditions and financial resources compared to developed markets. For internationally active medical-device companies from Germany competition has grown in recent years. Prevailing conditions of price caused by having production located in Germany, with continuous product developments fulfilling the latest quality standards, are seen as disadvantages that negatively influence competitiveness. Distance to current and future markets is seen as an issue
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