Effective Factors of Niche Markets Recognition in Iranian Food Industry: Case Study on Iranian Sweet and Chocolate Industry

Looming establishment of competitive environment on the globe imposes serious competitive challenges on domestic industries in a way that it affects their business trends or even their survival. Seemingly, starting and choosing niche markets can be effective solution to retain and grow the market share, and consequently gain success in competitive environments. Meanwhile, due to high competition in the food industry in Iran, this article tries to identify effective factors on diagnosing niche markets in this business line. Therefore, the related literature was reviewed before devising a specific conceptual model for the research. Confirmatory factor analysis was taken to test the research conceptual model in the context of the research population, leading to the confirmation of the model. According to confirmatory factor analysis, the triple components of the conceptual model in identifying niche markets in Iranian sweet and chocolate line of food industry are priority-wise: 1. core competency of the enterprise, 2. macro environment, 3. characteristics of food industry.