Exploring the strategic intent of Tamil Nadu leather industry through content analysis and AHP

Abstract

Leather industry in India, especially in Kanpur region has been dealt with sever allegations of non-compliance to industrial standards and other sustainable issues. This has led to the closure of large number of units resulting in a sharp decline in industrial performance. The majority of the population in Jajmau region in Kanpur deals with leather business and is presently unemployed. On the contrary, the industry in Tamil Nadu has been flourishing and the performance has increased during 2018 and 2019. Although ample work has been conducted in understanding the issues and remedial strategies of this industry, understanding the challenges from the viewpoint of business owners and providing weights to the remedial strategies still remains unexplored. This paper focuses on exploring the strategic intent of Tamil Nadu leather industry and how they have successfully implemented growth strategies. The data has been collected in the form of in-depth interviews from industry experts and respective theme has been identified using content analysis. The themes are then further provided weights by using Analytical Hierarchy Process technique. The results show that compliance with compliance to standards and norms which include production compliance, environmental compliance, establishing associations, social media networking, and individual reporting has been the top priority for the industry. The model developed in this study clearly shows the importance of respective strategies that have been successful in Tamil Nadu. This model can serve as a benchmark for the ever-declining Kanpur cluster and help them identify strategies that would be more efficient in the industry.

Subject Classification:

• 68W99

Keywords:

• Leather industry
• Content analysis
• AHP
• Kanpur
• Strategies