The analysis of Dutch international success in the agri-food sector with Diamond Model

The aim of this thesis is to explore the reasons behind the example of the Dutch agricultural sector, which has shown great success in the international agricultural sector despite limited natural resources, based on the concept of competitive advantage and the framework of the Diamond Model of Porter's Competitive Advantage theory. In link with this aim, while answering the question of which competitive advantage factors are active in the success of Dutch agriculture, the working mechanism between them has also been tried to be learned. Thus, which competitive advantage factors would be needed to be successful in the international agricultural sector via limited natural resources has been determined through the example of the Netherlands. On the other hand, an effort has been made to determine at what level the theoretical equipment of the Diamond Model is sufficient in determining the competitive advantages of the Netherlands. The research carried out within the scope of the thesis is an exploratory case study that adopted the holistic perspective approach. As a research method, it has been applied to the qualitative research method. Collecting by data collection techniques like electron-interview and document analysis for use in the analysis, the data have subjected to content analysis, and the obtained categories and codes have been tried to be explained by descriptive analysis. As a result of the study's findings, the achievement of the Netherlands in the international agricultural sector has been explained by 50 competitive advantage factors. While 46 of these factors build the National Agricultural Diamond of the Netherlands via adapting to Porter's Diamond, 4 of them build the Non-Diamond factor. The study's findings provided the opportunity to make inferences about the competitive advantage factors that countries being active participants in the globalized world economy and countries with limited natural resources can have in a particular industry, with different approaches based on the example of the Netherlands. In the first part of this thesis, which consists of three parts, the concept of competitive advantage, which constitutes the conceptual framework of the research, has been subjected to a detailed examination under the roof of the strategic management school. It has been given a place for Porter's Competitive Advantages theory, which constitutes the theoretical framework of the study, and its Diamond Model in the second chapter. Furthermore, in the third chapter, the method of the research was explained, and the findings that obtained as a result of the study were presented.