[UserCP=1]<p></p><p><br/>Muhittin Oral<br/>Facultd des Sciences de l'Administration, Universitd Laval, Ste.-Foy, Que., P.Q. G1K 7P4, Canada</p><p><br/>Abstract: The increasingly important role of global competition in shaping long-term strategies of<br/>industrial firms has been recognized by managers, planners, politicians and academicians alike. This has<br/>prompted recently an increase in the number of studies explicitly dealing with competitiveness analysis.<br/>The studies done in this respect however are usually descriptive in nature, providing only checklists of<br/>factors with few measurement guidelines, and hence difficult to make them operational. The present<br/>paper is an attempt to meet this attested need by proposing a model-based approach to competitiveness<br/>analysis and discusses its multi-phased implementation in a large glass company. The practice experience<br/>gained with this approach indicates that mathematical models can provide an analytical framework for<br/>the analysis of industrial competitiveness and can yield useful insight for competitive strategy formulation.</p><p><br/>Keywords: Industrial competition; Manufacturing; Marketing; Strategy; Glass industry; Modeling</p>[/UserCP]