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This chapter aims to study international experience and prospects for improving accounting practices to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. The research is based on a sample from 202 countries for 2019–2022, relying on World Bank statistics. The authors ranked the factors related to accounting practices in terms of their significance in ensuring the global competitiveness of enterprises. The most significant factors are the detalization of accounting, communication with tax inspectors, and accounting digitalization of accounting. The least significant and contradictory factor was the inclusivity of top management. The theoretical significance lies in the fact that its results revealed previously unknown influences of accounting practices (managerial factors) on the competitiveness of enterprises. The scientific novelty of the obtained results lies in the rethinking of the process of managing the global competitiveness of enterprises in the accounting system through the prism of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), substantiating that this management most actively supports the implementation of SDG 16 and SDG 17, generally supports SDG 9, and slightly contributes to SDG 5. The practical significance is associated with the perspective of enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises through the improvement of accounting practices (using Uzbekistan as an example). It demonstrates that even with low activity and small market capitalization of domestic enterprises on the stock market, improving accounting practices can significantly increase this activity and capitalization. The author's recommendations will help improve accounting practices and ensure the growth of the global competitiveness of enterprises in Uzbekistan in the medium term until 2026.

This research aims to adopt competitiveness theory to analyse the effects of leadership competencies on the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector.

This research collected data from 200 participants, who are in management positions of tourism SMEs in Vietnam. Structural equation modelling was applied.

The results indicate satisfactory reliability and validity of the constructs and support for two models within a structural equation modelling to evaluate the influence of leadership competencies on the competitiveness of SMEs. The data from both customers and competitors show that the competitiveness and the performance of the enterprise are affected by hands-on experience; relationships building competencies; strategic vision; operations management competencies. Furthermore, customers also value professional knowledge of the enterprises' leaders.

The study suggests that the government agencies and tourism SMEs themselves should focus more on leadership. Training courses, exchange programs, seminars and workshops should be provided for SMEs leaders to improve their leadership competencies.

The research findings provide a more comprehensive view of internal and external factors affecting the competitiveness of SMEs in the tourism sector in Vietnam. This also contributes to competitiveness and leadership research by presenting the positive linkage between leadership competencies and the competitiveness of SMEs.

This paper aims to assess the contribution of competitiveness factors in how small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) would access competitive advantage (CA) by focussing on industry structure and devise a conceptual model thereof.

The enterprises from three industries consisting of knowledge-based, single-use medical device producers and construction stone cutting each with different structures were assessed. The method is qualitative and quantitative where grounded theory and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) are applied. The initial survey involves 36 deep semi-structured interviews with some of the top managers of each of the three selected industries and a questionnaire distributed among 158 individuals with 46 structured questions.

The findings indicate that the micro-competitiveness factors are more contributive in achieving CA than macro factors as follows: in knowledge-based enterprises, customer relationship management (CRM), goods/services features and knowledge management are the most important variables. As to single-use medical device production industry, the sales force, sales promotion, and CRM are the most effective factors. Regarding construction stone-cutting industry, quality of the stone, sales promotion, and advertisement play the same role. The results of the EFA indicate that the three impressive factors, including capabilities of the enterprises, strategies of the enterprises and macro factors, are the extracted factors.

The findings here would assist SMEs’ managers in identifying the most essential factors in accessing CA.

The innovation of this study is that although there exist many studies on SMEs and their CAs, this study seeks the models of CA among SMEs in industries with different structures.

This study aims to analyze and discuss the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firms’ performance, as well as to examine the interplay between CSR and the economy, society and innovation.

This paper collects data from 420 manufacturing firms across various geographical regions in China. By using a structural equation model, the paper investigates the impact of CSR on enterprise innovation, customer management capability, market competitiveness (MC) and firm financial performance.

The findings demonstrate that CSR performance positively contributes to enhancing the level of enterprise innovation, as well as customer management capability and market competitiveness. Furthermore, it assists enterprises in improving market competitiveness and elevating customer management capabilities. Thus, CSR can have a positive effect on the firm financial performance.

The outcomes presented in this paper offer valuable evidence regarding the influence of implementing CSR on different aspects of enterprise performance and innovation. Moreover, it provides practical recommendations for enterprises seeking to transition towards low-carbon practices and upgrade their manufacturing industry.

This editorial aims to review various theoretical frameworks in measuring firm competences, including marketing competences, strategic flexibility, innovation capacity building of organizations and attempts to propose a conceptual framework to benchmark and rank the Chinese firms in terms of competitiveness.

An overview and conceptual paper based on observations and research experience. Drawing on the prevalent theoretical models of building up competitiveness and reports from well established research centres, government and international associations worldwide, this paper presents a strategic framework for evaluating and measuring firm competitiveness in China.

The paper stresses the importance of keeping‐up with the fast pace of technological change and the emerging new global paradigms of the business environment. It addresses the development trajectory and the way through which firms can contribute to capacity building and the creation of competitive advantage in facing the pressing challenges of globalization. It aims to establish the potential indicators of competitiveness by analysing the theoretic elements and the microeconomic business environment.

This paper presents the crucial tenets of the strategic framework of developing firm competitiveness, which include: creation of core competence, establishment of competitiveness index and competitiveness rankings. These are closely linked with the development of corporate strategy, marketing strategy and technology and innovation strategy within firms. These core features will have strong implication to Chinese and foreign enterprises and provide an invaluable instrument for firms to enhance their performance through benchmarking and evaluating their current competitive position and determine new strategies to create competitiveness.

A recent United Nations Industrial Development Organisation executed pilot project in Sri Lanka aimed at providing restructuring assistance to ten manufacturing enterprises, looked at the application of computers for management functions and analysed the constraints limiting the use of the computer potential for improving enterprise competitiveness. This paper reports on the key observations and recommendations arising from this pilot project. It was found that though all the enterprises had access to computers, the utilisation was mainly for payroll, accounting and word‐processing tasks. Surprisingly the restructuring recommendations to improve enterprise competitiveness were based on a strategy of improving operations management and generating up‐to‐date management information and financial forecasts, areas that were not computerised. The paper analyses the findings from the ten pilot enterprises and recommends ways of enhancing the utilisation of the potential of microcomputers for improving the competitiveness of enterprises. The problems identified here in a developing country with a high literacy rate and high per capita utilisation of PCs, would be useful to other developing countries, facing the competitive threats arising from globalisation

This paper aims to investigate the competitiveness of two enterprise chicken regimes (upgraded and indigenous) in Eastern Uganda for poverty reduction in small farm enterprises.

The paper utilizes primary data collected using a structured questionnaire from a randomly selected sample of 108 chicken farmers (54 crossbred and 54 indigenous). Econometric methods are employed to analyze the data. Competitiveness is measured using unit cost ratio while the determinant factors are identified by the use of regression analysis.

The econometric results show that the most critical factors in increasing the competitiveness of the chicken enterprise are: proportion of birds weaned to the total flock, number of chickens reared and farmer's rearing experience. The main conclusion is that in order to increase performance of chicken enterprise and improve income of the rural population, upgrading of indigenous chickens through crossbreeding should be pursued. This approach should put emphasis on improving the management systems which will involve offering an enabling environment for farmers to access credit and markets.

Given the importance of poultry rearing in every household in Uganda, the sub‐sector provides a good entry point for poverty alleviation in this part of Uganda. However, limited information on economic analysis exists and hence the value of this study. The paper identifies a number of variables that must be addressed, if the sector is to play its rightful role in poverty reduction.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the firm-level drivers of competitiveness of the Czech small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using the complex firm-level competitiveness index. The authors explored the relationship between firm competitiveness and firm characteristics such as size, age, industry affiliation and location.

The complex competitiveness index as a proxy for firm competitiveness was calculated from the survey data. In total, 132 complete questionnaires filled in by representatives of randomly selected Czech SMEs were collected in 2018. Additional firm characteristics (size, age, industry affiliation and location) considered as determinants of competitiveness were obtained from the commercial database Albertina and from the Czech Statistical Office. The determinants of competitiveness were tested econometrically by estimation of multivariate regression models.

The authors mainly found a significant relationship between the firm size and competitiveness of the Czech SMEs. The authors have also confirmed that the least competitive enterprises are those operating in the agricultural sector and that regional location plays an important role in the determination of firm competitiveness.

The identification of competitiveness drivers can provide entrepreneurs, managers and policymakers with important implications. It seems beneficial for the Czech SMEs to expand the scope of operations to achieve a larger company size, for example, by focussing on investment activities, direct marketing, improving entrepreneurial skills or by applying an aggressive sales strategy, especially towards markets with lower competition. Politicians may respond to these efforts by setting the appropriate policies that promote SMEs’ competitiveness, for example, through the hard and soft public support for financial and human resources.

Although many studies on competitiveness have been published, there is still a limited number of firm-level studies looking at competitiveness from multiple angles rather than from the study of profitability and productivity. In contrast, the study uses a complex firm-level competitiveness index based on ten competitiveness pillars (technology, human capital, products, domestic market, networks, international markets, online presence, marketing, decision making and strategy) to capture the contribution of different resources and capabilities to firm competitiveness.

Globalization and national competitiveness are popular issues in our economic policy debates. This paper seeks to clarify these pressing issues facing government, private sector and trade unions and focuses on alternative productivity and competitive strategies and benchmarking for competitiveness. It examines approaches to national competitiveness during globalization, the factors affecting the competitiveness policy framework and recommends a holistic national approach for competitiveness and higher productivity under globalization. This approach is to be based, among others, on an understanding of the nature of technological change in manufacturing enterprises so far. The pace at which enterprises acquire technological and other manufacturing capabilities is to be reflected in shifts in comparative advantage at the country level. Thus, national competitiveness can be proxied by manufactured export performance relative to competitors. For the economy to be more competitive and productive there are strong needs for rapid manufactured export growth, combined with sustained technological upgrading and diversification.

The purpose of this study is that on the basis of the competitive edge theory, source mechanism and evaluation approaches of industrial cluster competitiveness, combined with international trends in the automobile industry and the features of Chinese automobile industrial cluster development, an evaluation index system about cluster competitiveness of auto industry is built with comprehensive consideration of factors such as cluster development environment, external scale effect and internal competitiveness from the perspective of value chain of automobile industry.

An evaluation index system for automobile industrial cluster competitiveness was realized by integrating current strengths and future growth capacities with multidimensional, dynamic and comprehensive characteristics, which included 3 second-level, 10 third-level and 16 fourth-level indices. In the light of evaluation methods, a group intelligence optimization algorithm – (cuckoo search) – and traditional methods of complex decision-making system – analytic hierarchy process (AHP) – were combined to propose the cuckoo-AHP evaluation method. It was applied for the calculation and optimization of weight values in an automobile industrial cluster competitiveness evaluation index for the purpose of obtaining better scientific and more reliable results.

The research might further enrich the evaluation theory of automobile industrial cluster competitiveness and also can be useful for showing how traditional evaluation methods can be combined with intelligent algorithms to carry out better automobile industrial cluster competitiveness evaluations. In addition, studies of channels for kick-starting Chinese auto industrial cluster competitiveness are expected to provide references for how to enhance the cluster competitiveness of the Chinese automobile industry.

Changsha and Liuzhou, the Guangxi automobile industrial clusters as the two empirical analysis objects selected for this paper, are geographically adjacent to each other. The automobile industries of the two cities are local pillar industries with the strong support of the local government. Both clusters have their own advantages and weak points with different characteristics of cluster development, and they enjoy a representative significance amongst China’s numerous auto industrial clusters that are taking shape. Comparative analysis of both clusters serves as a good reference for the objective evaluation of the competitiveness of Chinese automobile clusters in terms of their real and practical developments and in respect of the success of reasonable scientific and industrial cluster policies.

Multidimensional, dynamic, integrated evaluation index systems are constructed around automobile industrial cluster competitiveness, which has taken into account developments in current strengths and future growth capacity. The cuckoo-AHP evaluation method has been formed by combining the traditional decision-making method known as AHP with a new meta-heuristic optimization algorithm called “cuckoo search”. Both have been used in evaluations of automobile industrial cluster competitiveness in Liuzhou and Changsha, which will be beneficial for enriching automobile industrial cluster competitiveness evaluation theory and new evaluation methods that will enable better evaluations of automobile industrial cluster competitiveness.