Composite Analysis of Competitiveness: Case Study of Companies Working the Soil in the Slovak Republic

Abstract

Competitiveness and sustainability in view of the constantly changing market environment are among the basic characteristics of a company, while its progress and growth are largely determined by the field of business and the nature of production. The introduction of the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU after the accession of the Slovak Republic to the EU significantly changed the necessary conditions for the functioning of domestic agriculture. Agriculture in the European Union is highly differentiated; therefore, surveys on the sustainability and competitiveness of agriculture at the national level are very valuable. Agricultural cooperatives in Slovakia compete for market share with non-cooperative organizations. In our research, we used a sample of enterprises in the agricultural sector, and, using the RCR coefficient, we evaluated the competitiveness of enterprises from the point of view of individual legal forms. The purpose of our research is to answer a simple question: What is the cause of the recorded development of the RCR index? In the case of non-cooperatives, the value of the regressor is higher in each comparison with the results of cooperatives. However, the nature of the relationship in the case of entities operating on agricultural land in the Slovak Republic with the legal form of a cooperative is significantly more homogeneous across the evaluated period.

Keywords

• competitiveness
• competitive advantage
• agricultural companies
• legal form
• RCR coefficient
• Slovak Republic