Ranking SMEs in Qazvin Province with evaluating competitive advantage by TOPSIS method

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a foundation for Economic and regional development that provide the background of the equipping resources and thereby increase national income and create job opportunities in the regional and national levels. Given the critical role of these firms, industrial planners should consider the competitive advantage of different industrial activities. In this paper, we analyze the competitive advantage of SMEs in Qazvin province by identifying the determinants of competitive advantage for two years of 1383 and 1391. The used method is composite indexes by using the Location Quotient. This paper applies the TOPSIS method for ranking the industries with two different approaches in determining weights of evaluation indexes, Entropy technique and according to experts opinions. Indices used in the ranking include production and value added, labor productivity, employment, investment, and productivity. This paper is mainly aimed to evaluate the sustainability of competitive advantage of SMEs in the two time periods of 1383 and 1391. The results show, according to both approaches, the relative position of many industries in the province, is unstable. But the basic metal industry, rubber and plastic products, and chemicals products industry were the leading industries in the province.