Competitive Analysis on Real Estate in Dubai

dubaiRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COMPETITIVE PRIORITIES AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AMONG REAL ESTATE FIRMS IN DUBAI Anwar Salem Omair Musaibah Mustafa Zakaria Mohd Khairuddin Hashim College of Business Universiti Utara Malaysia [e-mail] The importance of competitive priorities and competitive advantage has been emphasized in the strategic management literature. Furthermore, the literature review suggests relationships exist between competitive priorities and competitive advantage in business organizations. However, the review of past studies indicate that limited research attempts have been made to investigate the relationships between competitive priorities and competitive advantage among business organizations, particularly among real estate firms. This study attempted to address this research issue by examining competitive priorities and competitive advantage among real estate firms in Dubai. The data for the study was collected by using structured questionnaire mailed to 30 managers who worked in six real estate firms in Dubai. The results of the analyses of the data collected in study indicated that the firms in the study emphasized on competitive priorities that include flexibility, cost, quality and delivery. In addition, the results of the study show that quality, cost and delivery are positively related to competitive advantage. INTRODUCTION The strategic management literature emphasizes on the need for business organizations to develop their competitive advantage in order to sustain their performance as well as competitiveness. In addition, the literature highlights the importance of developing competitive advantage through competitive priorities. Findings of previous studies have indicated firms that focused on developing their competitive advantage through competitive priorities tend to not only perform better than their competitors but they also are able to adapt to the changing conditions in the business environment (Askar and Mortagy, 2007;