Firm Competitiveness Determinants: Results of a Panel Data Analysis (preliminary results)

1. Firm Competitiveness Determinants: Results of a Panel Data Analysis(preliminary results) Tibor Lalinsky National Bank of Slovakia

2. Motivation/Starting Points Several studies indicate that leading Slovak companies are competitive (highly profitable), but we do not know much about why it is so Very limited number of quantitative studies on competitiveness factors of Slovak companies (almost solely as a part of cross-country studies) Available literature concentrates mainly on the influence of macro factors (cross-country differences) and not on (qualitative) company factors Availability of questionnaire survey results (with some potential & so far limited use) and individual annual data No consensus on a common competitiveness measure (almost every study uses different dependent variable) Relatively large number of possible dependent and explanatory variables => We know it should be a dynamic process based on productivity, profitability, export performance and market share 2

3. Model Specification • Linear dynamic panel model with individual effects yit = γyi,t-1 + x’itβ1 + z’iβ2 + αi + εit Basic and survey based qualitative (dummy) variables (sector, management, foreign influence + other company and environment data) Available performance/ competitiveness variables (profitability, productivity export and market share data) Basic quantitative variables (profit/loss, balance sheet, production and export data) * Dependent, lagged dependent and quantitative explanatory variables expressed in logs 3

4. Data Financial data on the 90 top Slovak companies (that participated in our survey) from Trend Top 200 Database for years 2001 - 2009 + basic qualitative company data from the same database Additional qualitative data from the Slovak Business Register Results (mainly qualitative data) from our questionnaire survey Some data (total export, value added and turnover) about non-financial companies from the Statistical Office of the SR 4

5. Dependent Variables labour productivity = company gross revenue / number of employees return on assets = company gross profit / total company assets export performance = value of company export market share = company revenue / total revenue of non-financial companies in SK other variables: return on equity, profit margin , productivity based on value added, capital productivity, export share, total revenue, amortisation adjusted value added + all 3 profitability indicators based on after tax profit -> not significant lagged dependent variable 5

6. Value added Revenue Value of export Investments Long-term assets Fixed assets Amortisation Number of employees Personal costs Loans Company age Export from SK GDP in SK + derived variables: Market share Labour costs Leverage Investment productivity Capital intensity Investment intensity Export performance Export share + all dependent variables Explanatory Variables - Quantitative Source: Trend SO SR

7. Industry dummy Network industry Accounting year Foreign capital Name change Foreign manager Manager with domestic education + Top15 Competitiveness factors: Efficiency of company leadership Concentration on cost reduction Professionalism of management Quality of company management Extent of utilization of comm. technology Existence of developed supply industries Buyer sophistication Nature of competitive advantage Availability of experienced managers Availability of adeq. educated labor force Exchange rate stability Energy costs EU membership Perspective of euro adoption Quality of transport infrastructure Explanatory Variables - Qualitative Basic company factors: Source: Trend Business Register Source: Lalinský (2008)

8. Questionnaire Survey – Basic Facts • Target group: top 200 Slovak companies (93 responds) • Content: List of 73 potential factors influencing company competitiveness • 31 company factors • 17 sectoral factors • 25 macro-level factors • For every factor respondents were asked to evaluate: • Current state • Effect on present competitiveness • Effect on future competitiveness Source:Lalinsky (2008) WP 3/2008: Competitiveness Factors of Slovak Companies

9. Methodology • OLS, FE and RE are biased because lagged dependent variable is correlated with error term => we need IV/GMM estimator • Identification of key models with lagged dependent variable and quantitative explanatory variables (1 for profitability, 1 for productivity, 1 for export performance and 1 for market share) • Extended regressions including all 15 competitiveness factors (top 5 company, sectoral and macro factors) – very limited results • Gradual extension of the 4 key models including both basic company and competitiveness factors

10. Main ResultsA) Profitability • Return on assets as a function of lagged dependent variable and company market share • Significant effect of several competitiveness factors • Dominance of macro factors (energy costs, EU membership & ER stability) • Only one top 5 sectoral (developed consumer sectors) in combination with an additional factor • Company communication tech. utilisation with price/cost reduction at the company level

11. Main ResultsB) Labour productivity • Labour productivity as a function of lagged value of productivity and labour costs • Statistically significant, but relatively small effect of foreign management & at least one company, sectoral and macro factor • EU membership at the macro level • Competitive advantage based on efficiency at the sectoral level • Medium and high quality company management at the company level

12. Main ResultsC) Export performance • export as a function of lagged value of export and labour costs • Statistically significant, but relatively small effect of foreign management & at least one company, sectoral and macro factor • Euro adoption at the macro level • Developed consumer sectors at the sectoral level • Highly efficient leadership at the company level (only with additional macro factor)

13. Main ResultsD) Market share • Market share as a function of lagged value of market share and export share • Statistically significant, but relatively small effect of one sectoral and one macro factor (but relatively low p-value for Hansen test) • Energy costs at the macro level • Customer demandingness at the sectoral level • None of the top 5 company level factors, only additional – corporate relationships with other companies – was statistically significant

14. Conclusion • The regression analysis showed statistically significant impact of presence of foreign manager in the company on its competitiveness (but only based on productivity and exports) • Econometric analysis has confirmed statistically significant impact of most of the competitiveness factors (identified by the survey) on the analysed companies’ competitiveness • Their impact differs across considered competitiveness indicators, they seem to explain much larger part of profitability than productivity, export or market share • There were only three variables statistically significant for at least 2 indicators (energy costs, EU membership and developed consumer sectors)