The competitive environment among companies in the Czech part of Euroregion Neisse-Nisa-Nysa

Abstract

The paper concentrates on the characteristics of the competitive environment in the Czech part of Euroregion Nisa and a constituent part of the outcome of a specific research project at the Faculty of Economics at the Technical University in Liberec. It can be assumed that a company that wants to succeed on the market must use its competitive advantage and develop its competitiveness. This is based on the ability to respond quickly and correctly to the requirements of customers and competing companies. Competitiveness means a company generating competitive advantages faster than its competitors. The authors look at the question of which competitive advantages exist among the companies in ERN, what is important to companies and what relationship there is between competitive advantages and the competitive strategies used. The introduction to the paper presents methodological approaches to the topics of competitive strategies and the competitive environment from the perspective of experts on the matter. The main aim of the paper is to identify and characterise the competitive environment of companies in the Czech part of Euroregion Nisa based on an evaluation of data from primary questioning. The authors of the paper deal with the issue of the main competitive strategies that companies now use and in what lies their competitive advantage. Results and discussion are found in an evaluation of primary research undertaken among 170 companies in the Czech part of Euroregion Nisa. A detailed investigation confirmed that competitive advantage and competitive strategies need to be understood as multi-dimensional and multi-factored. There are several “key” types of competitive advantage, their number and order of importance depending on many circumstances; for example a company's sphere of activity, the area of business activity, the size of the company, the requirements of owners and customers, the priorities of management and so on. Each industry uses its own competitive advantage differently and the decisive factor is succeeding with customers. It can be contended that successful companies need to produce differentiated products at low cost and need to be flexible.