Entrepreneurship as driver of competitiveness: The case of Macedonian fruit and vegetable processing industry

Contributions from the research

The results and conclusions of this study have twofold contributions: practical application for making improvements by entrepreneurs and by policymakers, and scientific application which is more empirical than theoretical.

First, the practical value of the study lies in the applicability that findings have for the managers of companies in fruit and vegetable processing industry. Namely, they may see where their company stands among competitors, which are its strengths or weaknesses compared with other firms, to discover the reasons for the company’s particular rank, and detect which dimension should be improved, and which dimensions are satisfying.

Moreover, by pointing out how managers can improve their companies’ competitiveness through developing their entrepreneurial capacity, many managers can contribute as well. They can understand the key factors in the entrepreneurial management of the company, and may make efforts to act more entrepreneurially, to risk more, to innovate etc. For example, if they notice that other firms are more competitive, because they are more informed about trends, or have better resource management, or introduce more innovations, and are customer oriented, they detect the areas for potential improvement.

This research may affect improving competitiveness not just in the fruit and vegetable processing industry, but in many other industries as well. If we take into consideration that industries are sum of many firms working and producing same, similar or supporting products, by confirming the positive effect that entrepreneurship can have over the success of the companies, the competitiveness of a whole range of national industries can be advanced. For example, managers from other industries can use the methodology and calculate their competitiveness and their entrepreneurial potential, then, to see the areas of weaknesses in their firms and in their managing approach, in order to fix them.

Policymakers can calculate the competitiveness and entrepreneurial index on a larger population, as all manufacturing firms, or all service firms, all companies in the country. Therefore, based on the results they may take measures to foster entrepreneurship where it is not developed, review the industrial strategy and so on. This can further improve the competitiveness of the whole country.

Second, the significance of the study for scientific purposes, as stated at the beginning, is more empirical than theoretical. Indeed, in the theory the externalities that entrepreneurship has for developing competitiveness are not new and unknown. On the contrary, it has already been investigated by many researchers. However, most studies have been theoretical review, and less had some quantitative approach. Moreover, they are mainly oriented on the effect of entrepreneurship on the national industries competitiveness, and rarely tackle the problem of entrepreneurial elements as determinants and drivers of competitiveness on a company level. By investigating the indicators and creating composite indexes for competitiveness and entrepreneurship, this study quantifies those categories and goes into econometric modeling of their relationship. Therefore, the research is not a breakthrough, and its scientific contribution is small, mainly enriches the microeconomics approach in examining competitiveness and entrepreneurship with quantitative calculations. However, without it, the researches student this area would be less for one.

Limitations of the research

The research has its limitations that I would like to admit, and inform readers and users about, in order to avoid further misunderstandings.

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  First, the indicators used for the index are theoretically sustained, but they may not be the only ones which determine competitiveness or entrepreneurship. This limitation is covered, by assuming other factors influence in the regression model.
  
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  Second, in the chapter explaining the manufacturing competitiveness the data for the CIP index used to make calculations and comparisons among countries is from the year 2010, because of lack of newer data available.
  

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  Third, the research used questioner which was delivered to the managers by mail and phone, so even through the intention was 100% security that the questions are answered by the managers of the firms, they may have been answered by other employs.
  
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  Fourth, the indexes were constructed by using proxy values which may not give completely objective results and includes a dose of subjective judgment. For example, managers gave their own perception about the loyalty of customers, the introducing of innovations, which does not have to be 100 % true.
  
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  Fifth, in the construction process, the methods used for normalization and weighting, even through based on theoretical background and other researchers’ experiences, include subjective judgment by the resercher/ constructor.
  
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  At last, the research has found that entrepreneurship determines competitiveness, states that entrepreneurship should be increased among managers, but it does not give measures how to improve entrepreneurship in companies.
  

Finally, the research limitations are mainly because of lack of data, time and resources for further research and validation. However, they are addressed, and it is recommended to be leveled in further researches.

Recommendations for further research

This research has found that there is relationship among entrepreneurship and competitiveness in fruit and vegetable processing industry, but further research may investigate their relation in this industry in other countries, and make e comparisons among countries, or it may explore the relationship in other industries as well.

Also, future researchers may include other factors which are important for understanding competitiveness and entrepreneurship different from the ones taken into account in this study and use the same methodology.

Finally, they may offer some measures and strategies how to improve and stimulate entrepreneurship on a company level.