Which factors determine the success or failure of engineering companies, one of the most powerful sectors of any country’s economy? Researcher Mª Carmen Haro Domínguez, from the Department of Business Management of the University of Granada, has thrown some light upon this complex question with her doctoral thesis, which she recently defended.
Her research presents an analysis of the factors which influence company managers when investing in technology to improve production. The main goal of the study is to encourage engineering companies to hire consultants, given it has been proved to be highly beneficial.
Haro Domínguez’s research was carried out with data provided by Tecniberia-Asince, the biggest association of engineering consultant companies in Spain. It gathers together almost 250 consultant firms, and it is the fifth most important in Europe. It has 36,000 workers and it turns over €4,200m a year.
Haro Domínguez points out that using new technologies in these kinds of companies “does not only condition their organizational structure, but also influences their consolidation within the market in order to maintain a competitive position”.
Making the difference
The author of this study explains that most of Spain’s small and medium-sized businesses look for differentiation when defining their competitive policy and not a technologic leadership, given it is not their main goal. “These kinds of companies have R&D and innovation departments, which generate their own technology and the differentiation strategy that will govern their actions,” says Mª Carmen Haro.
UGR research has found that the consultant company sector in the field of engineering is still very young, “which is why it is still in need of time in order to be completely profitable.” Haro Domínguez declares that Spanish small and medium-sized businesses ask consultants for services they can put their trust in. ”These companies are looking for someone who gives them advice not only at the beginning of a project, but also in the successive stages and at the end.”
The work carried out at the University of Granada is the first to be developed about consultants in the field of engineering. The author states that her work cannot be applied to different kinds of companies, “given the specific features these kinds of consultants have”. Some of these features are the great amount of technology used, the high qualification of the workers, the big extent of their projects and the fact that they are companies really subject to variability in the services they are asked for by their customers.
Reference: Mª Carmen Haro Domínguez. Department of Business Management of the University of Granada.
Phone numbers: 958 242 889 // 610 787 729. E-mail: carmenha@ugr.es
