Is Porter’s diamond applicable to developing countries? A case study of the broiler industry in Uruguay

This study focuses on the analysis and assessment of competitiveness of the Uruguayan broiler industry within MERCOSUR union. Porter’s (1990) ‘national diamond’ was selected as the appropriate framework for analysis and was applied to the six major Uruguayan broiler firms. This research reveals that the unique characteristics of the Uruguayan broiler industry are successfully accommodated within the selected framework to explain the success of the broiler industry against other meat substitutes. These results are consistent with those found in the existing literature, lending support to the view that Porter’s (1990) model seems to be applicable to developing countries such as Uruguay. However, some modifications of the model are required to fully explain the progress of this industry. This research project presents an adaptation of Porter’s ‘diamond’ to the singularities of the firms investigated in this study.