Small and Medium Sized Firms’ Competitiveness and Territorial Characteristics by using a MLR approach

This paper investigates the importance of territorial characteristics on small and medium-sized firms’ (SMEs) competitiveness. The analysis is based on primary data collected through questionnaires from 374 firms located in Bari (Italy), Varna (Bulgaria) and Thessaloniki (Greece). These firms operate in the sectors of industry, commerce and services. Through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), the contribution of a large set of territorial characteristics has been assessed allowing us to extract some important and comprehensive factors for firms’ competitiveness. Finally we implemented a multinomial logistic regression (MLR) in which the degree of firms’ competitiveness (Low, Medium, High) is specified as a function of the territorial components identified through EFA. Three categories of firms’ competitiveness are examined: competitiveness at national level, competitiveness against South-Eastern firms as well as North-Western firms. The MLR has been applied to all firms as well as to each one of the three sectors of activity. The results of the analysis confirm that the contribution of each major territorial component is largely conditioned by the type of competitiveness examined as well as the sector of activity.