In this paper a new approach to find indicators that can be used to measure companies’ competitiveness and

performance in an efficient and reliable way is presented.

The aim is to assist managers of companies within a specific industrial sector by providing information about their

relative position in the market so as to define better action plans that may improve the company’s performance.

The approach combines the use of the Analytic Network Process, a multicriteria decision method, with the

Balanced Scorecard. It allows the definition of a number of competitiveness indicators based on the performance

and setting of the advertising sector. In this way it is possible to obtain a Competitiveness Index that allows a

company to know its relative position with respect to other companies in the sector, and establish a ranking of the

companies ordered by their competitiveness level.

A case study in the advertising industry of Venezuela is provided. Results show that improvement plans for the

agencies analyzed should promote creativity, innovation and the use of new technologies, as a particular form of

innovation. These factors were considered to be the most relevant indicators in the advertising sector.

The participating experts agreed that the methodology is useful and an improvement over current competitiveness

assessment methods.