The relationship between key performance indicators and export competitiveness in the ceramics industry: The case of Uşak

Key performance indicators determined within the scope of efficiency, financial and sustainability; calculated from 11 years of production, finance and sales data for the years 2009-2019 of a business in Uşak operating in the ceramics industry. Since the units of the determined four efficiency, five financial and five sustainability key performance indicators are different from each other, these differences were eliminated by performing the normalization process. The SWARA (Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis) method was applied to the efficiency, financial and sustainability key performance indicators, and after one key performance indicator for each scope was obtained, a single key performance indicator was obtained by applying the SWARA method again. Export concentration ratio (CR) and Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) have been calculated from the 11-year export data for the years 2009-2019 taken from the same business in Uşak by taking into account the different amounts of ceramic tiles in different currencies exported to many countries. Correlation and regression analysis between the four key performance indicators as independent variables and export concentration ratio and Herfindahl-Hirschman index as dependent variables were performed in SPSS program. Correlation and regression results were evaluated at the end of the study. Keywords: Key performance indicators, SWARA, export competitiveness, export concentration ratio, Herfindahl-Hirschman index, ceramic sector.