Naslov
The competitiveness of Slovenian and Croatian entrepreneurs within different stages of the company lifecycle

Autori
Širec, Karin ; Crnković-Stumpf, Branka

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Poglavlja u knjigama, znanstveni

Knjiga
Economic development and enterpreneurship in transition economies : is free trade working for transitional and developing economies?

Urednik/ci
Ateljević, Jovo ; Borović, Zoran

Izdavač
Ekonomski fakultet Univerziteta u Banjoj Luci

Grad
Banja Luka

Godina
2017

Raspon stranica
57-69

ISBN
978-99938-46-54-3

Ključne riječi
competitiveness level, demographic characteristics, human capital, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, early stage and establish entrepreneurs

Sažetak
This paper examines the different lev els of competitiveness and highlights its determinants across Slovenian and Croatian early stage and established entrepreneurs, i.e. through different stages of companies’ lifecycle. Since many socioeconomic differences between the two countries exist, the objective of the study was to establish potentially important differences between early stage and established entrepreneurs who (according to the proponents of blue ocean strategy school of thought by Kim and Mauborgne, 2005) enter markets with high (red oceans — many competitors) or low (blue oceans — few or no competitors) competition in terms of their demographic and human capital characteristics. This enables us to explore the extent to which entrepreneurs with different background characteristics enter different types of markets (i.e., high versus low competition markets). Our data show that early stage and established entrepreneurs in both countries enter both types of markets, but to a very different extent. Early stage entrepreneur are overrepresented on low competitive markets whereas established entrepreneurs on high competitive markets. We have investigated several demographic and human capital characteristics of early stage and established entrepreneurs that might play a role in finding and exploit ing niche markets. It appears that female entrepreneurs are overrepresented in markets with limited competition, although the difference is not significant. We confirmed that younger established entrepreneurs enter markets with rather low competition (blue oceans) and also that more educated entrepreneurs tend to enter new niche markets. The significant relationship among the investigated variables was confirmed for the entire sample and for established entrepreneurs from Croatia. Furthermore, those who have entrepreneurial skills appear to find and exploit niche markets a bit more often, suggesting that these skills might facilitate finding blue oceans. Overall, certain characteristics of early stage and established entrepreneurs differ between investigated countries. The results leave room for further investigation. Policymakers need to bear in mind that human capital specific characteristics could be supported and systematically developed. Nurturing them could help to stimulate more quality entrepreneurial engagement, since companies willing to innovate, export and consequently grow their companies do have many specific needs that must be addressed appropriately. The data were obtained from the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Adult Population Su rvey (APS). Our analysis is based on a sample of 467 cases from two countries ; 250 from Croatia and 217 from Slovenia.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Ekonomija

POVEZANOST RADA