Competitive Aadvantage and its mMeasurement; A, case Case study Study of Iran's methanol Methanol productsProducts

The competitiveness assessment of products for a country can be done by measuring advantage indicators. The concept of advantage in international trade, has been developed in accordance with circumstances, meanwhile the measurement indicators of advantage have evolved. In this regard, due to the important role of methanol in the Iranian petrochemical investment, Production (7/5 million tons in 2009) and export (255 millions, in 2004), this article concentrates on measuring Iran's advantage in methanol products. In this line, the evolution of advantage theories, from traditional (comparative advantage) to modern (competitive advantage) will be presented. Then, the indicators of comparative advantage and competitive advantage will be introduced. To calculate Iran's methanol products competitive advantage, four indicators including DRC, RCA, CMS and TM are measured. DRC is less than unit, meaning that Iran's Methanol Products have comparative advantage. RCA is obtained more than unit, indicating that methanol products are able to compete in international trade. CMS shows that, competitiveness of Iran's methanol products are increasing and TM indicates that Iran's methanol products belong to winners group in a progressive markets. Therefore, the findings indicate that, not only on the base of domestic resource opportunity cost criteria, but also by considering trade information, Iran's methanol products benefit from competitiveness or competitive advantage. Finally, factors affecting competitive advantage of Iran's methanol are analyzed in the Porter's framework.