Competitiveness of Enterprises During the Global Financial Crisis

Abstract

Competition is a process that occurs in every aspect of human activity especially when it comes to economic activity within the market economy, which is one of the fundamental forms of social organization of economic activity. Traders are forced to make decisions concerning both the production and resource allocation, which is an inherent factor in competition. One of the preconditions for the process of competition is the scarcity of a resource in relation to the demand for the goods. In the case of a market economy we are dealing with a limited volume of demand for the asset. So competition is one of the features of a market economy. The continuous competition of traders in order to achieve the same goal (profit maximizing), is a necessary factor in the success or failure of a company, industry, region or national economy. The situation becomes even more complicated when companies are forced to act in times of crisis. The crisis should be understood as a worldwide collapse of the economy manifested primarily by a fall of the stock index, decrease of production, rising unemployment, declining economic growth, declining revenues or by the failure of the financial system. The global economy is currently in a deep financial crisis, which is why, in order to survive, companies operating in that environment must have the ability to quickly adapt to the rapidly changing environment. The author of this text presents the essence of competition as an economic phenomenon, the causes of the global financial crisis and possible actions and strategies that may enable companies to compete effectively in the present crisis.