Analysis of export performance determinants in furniture industry: Fuzzy AHP and decision tree modeling

In order to increase the competitiveness of the companies, there are factors that need to be considered in both the domestic and foreign markets. Companies that want to maintain their presence in the foreign market need to differentiate from other companies in the sector and gain significant advantages against their competitors in order to maintain this continuity. Companies can be predicted to be more successful in competition if more importance is given to the factors influencing exports. The aim of this thesis is to determine the factors and issues affecting the export performance in furniture industry and to analyse the effects of these factors on export. In this context, operating in the furniture sector in Turkey the information obtained with the survey which 182 company managers implementation are the data of the study. In addition, a questionnaire was applied to 14 academicians specialized in the field. The subjects and factors obtained from the related literature were measured in the study. The similarities and differences between the exporters and the non-exporters are shown. Significance levels of factors and subjects were determined by AHP and Fuzzy AHP. In addition, using the data mining approach and decision trees, it has been tried to model prominent factors and subjects in export. Factor scores produced as a result of the measurement of the factors were found to represent the factor quite well. Although it is seen that the attitudes of firms that export and do not export in many factors and subjects are the same, it has been seen that they disagree in some basic subjects in exporting firms. As a result of AHP and Fuzzy AHP analysis, the most important factor is the Customer Satisfaction factor that important in the first two. One of the data mining methods, the decision tree model is designed to draw the road maps which will give ideas to the firms and managers planning to export through the scenarios produced. The overseas experience of the manager, the legal form of the company and the factor of personnel is the leading determinants of exportability.