Measuring the competitiveness of Latvian companies

Abstract

This study makes an empirical contribution by exploring factors that contribute to the competitiveness of Latvian companies. The paper draws on a survey of owner-managers to determine the availability and use of resources and strategies found to be important drivers for firms' competitiveness. Overall, we identify a number of firm-level factors, including involvement in risk-taking behaviour, more extensive use of networking channels, and efficient use of various business strategies as potential sources to increase the competitiveness of Latvian companies. Company owner-managers, however, tend to be more productive in using available human resources, and are satisfied with the availability of physical resources in addition to having a strong export orientation. The study also indicates various shortcomings in the external environment which, as perceived by respondents, are a burden for competitive entrepreneurship activities in the Latvian market. In this light, albeit of an exploratory nature, this study can be used as a source for evidencebased entrepreneurship policies in Latvia and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Assumptions of Corporate Social Responsibility as Competitiveness Factor

“…The general development of these factors creates fundamentals for the development of micro-economic welfare, enabling national enterprises to gain and maintain competitive advantages, useful for the countries in which they operate. According to Sauka (2014), competitiveness of enterprises is affected not only by the specific factors, but also by the combinations of such factors, which are more dependent from many other factors, like, for example, from the external environment, success, etc.…”

Sectoral and Firm-Level Determinants of Profitability: A Multilevel Approach

“…We acknowledge there is large body of knowledge on factors impacting business performance (e.g. Hirsch et al, 2014;Setiawan et al, 2012;Lin et al, 2014;Chaddad & Mondelli, 2013;Sauka, 2014;Daher & Le Saout, 2015;Bamiatzi et al, 2016;Burger et al, 2017;Adámek et al, 2017;Blažková & Dvouletý, 2018a, 2018b. However, at the same time, there are still under-researched regions, where the empirical evidence is still scarce.…”

Impacto de la rentabilidad y la cuota de mercado en las empresas zombis en México

“…Para comprender la relación entre el rendimiento empresarial y las empresas zombis se emplea la visión basada en recursos, la cual plantea que los elementos con los que cuenta la firma, así como las habilidades para explotarlos, son los que colocan a las organizaciones en posiciones vanguardistas para obtener mejores resultados que la competencia, generando un efecto diferenciador entre ellas, denotando que el mercado donde opera está directamente involucrado con éste concepto (Ferreira, Marques, & Azevedo, 2011;Gupta, Malhotra, Czinkota, & Foroudi, 2016;Peña-Vinces, Casanova, Guillen, & Urbano, 2017) Partiendo de ésta visión, se puede ver el resultado empresarial desde dos perspectivas, la que se relaciona con la eficiencia en el manejo de actividades relacionadas con la administración y utilización de los recursos con los que se cuenta (costos, producción, inversión, entre otros) y, por otro lado, la cuota de mercado que maneja cada unidad comparada con los demás integrantes del sector, lo anterior permite tener un mejor entendimiento de la dinámica del mercado (Sauka, 2014;Stojcic, Hashi, & Telhaj, 2013;Subramanian & Reddy, 2012).…”