AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF CORPORATE ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING VALUE CHAIN, AS A COMPETITIVENESS TOOL FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

Abstract

This contribution presents a new approach to corporate environment which uses an integrated model as a tool to achieve competitiveness of enterprises with a focus on small and medium enterprises. According to our search in local and international literature, corporate environment defined in this manner, including an analysis of value chain, in order to formulate a business strategy, has not been yet investigated in any study. Our testing group consisted of 373 small and medium enterprises. Our solution utilized methods of dimensional reduction and gradual regression analysis. The objective of our research was to analyze significance of components of the corporate environment (micro environment, mezzo environment and macro environment) and of the value chain from the viewpoint of their effects on profitability of enterprises. We have demonstrated an irreplaceable role of internal sources depending on the mezzo environment.