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Purpose: The paper aims to identify major components of the competitive potential of enterprises operating at the initial stage of the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research hypothesis H1 is advanced: the scope of business objects affects the selection of enterprise competitive potential components. The concept and nature of competitiveness are discussed and the subject matter of enterprise competitive potential is detailed. Design/methodology/approach: The theoretical section follows a thorough review of leading specialist literature. The empirical part, on the other hand, uses the exploratory factor analysis, which detects an optimum group of main factors and explains correlations among observable variables, serves to verify the hypothesis. The number of factors is determined by means of the Cattell scree and Kaiser criteria. Findings: The paper contains the results of research into 253 large enterprises in the Polish economy. Exploratory factor analysis is employed to define the statistically significant components of competitive potential of enterprises active in the initial phase of the economic crisis and the effect of business objectives is explored on the selection of the components of enterprise competitive potential. It is shown that, regardless of business objects, three factors, namely, innovative machinery and equipment, the financial condition of an enterprise, and human capital, are the key components of enterprise competitive potential. Practical implications: The results can be utilised by entrepreneurs as a guide to the selection of the components of enterprise competitive potential at the times of crises. Originality/value: The paper presents the results of original research into a representative group of large enterprises which can be generalised to the entire population assuming a confidence level of α = 95% and maximum error of β = 6%. |
