Parallels and Differences in Earnings Management of the Visegrad Four and the Baltics

Earnings management is a legal and widely preferred phenomenon of business finance that financial managers use to maintain and improve the enterprise’s competitiveness. Managers purposely manipulate business earnings to achieve the required status of the enterprise. The consequence of these activities is to provide a positive perspective for the owners, encourage the profitability for the creditor and the investors as well as demonstrate economic strengths to competitors. This article aims to identify parallels and differences in earnings management of enterprises in the Visegrad Four and the Baltics in terms of competitiveness for the nineyear period 2010-2018. The research uses a final sample of 4,543 observations from the EBITs of Slovak, Czech, Hungarian and Polish enterprises as well as 1,633 observations from the EBITs of Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian enterprises. Time-series methods with all necessary assumptions have been run for the analyzed financial dataset. The results of the econometric modeling of unit roots show significant parallels in these groups of countries. The enterprises from the Visegrad group and the Baltics group use the apparatus of earnings management to be competitive. The obtained results confirm the systematic but legal manipulation from the side of management. A quantitative analysis of homogeneity tests using 1,000,000 Monte Carlo simulations indicates significant time differences of manipulation in these emerging countries. The year 2014 signaled a radical “accelerando” in earnings management for the V4, and the year 2016 is highlighted for the Baltics.

Improving enterprise’s competitiveness on the basis of combined ABC/XYZ and cluster analyses of the commodity nomenclature

Subject. This article examines the relationship between marketing activities and the development of entrepreneurial structures in Russia. Objectives. The article aims to develop a methodological approach that helps optimize the product nomenclature and develop differentiated marketing strategies for managing sales in different segments. Methods. For the study, I used the methods of ABC/XYZ and cluster analyses. Results. The article offers a methodological approach to the analysis of the nomenclature of goods, tested on the data of one of the business structures of the Crimean wine industry. It identifies goods nomenclature clusters that have similar dynamic characteristics for changes in sales volumes and demand predictability, and provides recommendations for increasing sales, margins, and improving enterprise competitiveness. Conclusions. The developed methodological approach can be considered as an element of information and methodological support for the enterprise competitiveness management system.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF ENSURING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE ENTERPRISE

Введение. Статья посвящена систематизации организационно-экономических аспектов обеспечения конкурентоспособности предприятия. В статье построена иерархическая модель конкурентоспособности предприятия, состоящая из конкурентоспособности продукции, конкурентоспособности торговой марки, конкурентоспособности предприятия, конкурентоспособности потенциала. Конкретизированы детерминанты рыночной ориентации, определяющие конкурентоспособность предприятия. Данные и методы. Теоретико-методическую основу исследования составляют положения и разработки отечественных и зарубежных ученых в области организационно-экономических аспектов обеспечения конкурентоспособности предприятия, а также общенаучные и специальные методы научного познания. Полученные результаты. В результате исследования систематизированы организационно-экономические аспекты обеспечения конкурентоспособности предприятия на основе детерминант рыночной ориентации. Определено, что ресурсное обеспечение конкурентоспособности предприятия состоит из следующих составляющих: производственной, технологической, кадровой, финансовой, инновационной. Заключение. Теоретическая значимость исследования заключается в том, что полученные результаты расширяют отдельные положения теории управления и научные подходы к обеспечению и повышению конкурентоспособности предприятия. Introduction. The article is devoted to the systematization of organizational and economic aspects of ensuring the competitiveness of the enterprise. The article presents a hierarchical model of enterprise competitiveness, consisting of product competitiveness, brand competitiveness, enterprise competitiveness, and potential competitiveness. The determinants of market orientation that determine the competitiveness of an enterprise at each level of the proposed hierarchical sequence are specified. Data and methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research consists of the provisions and developments of domestic and foreign scientists in the field of organizational and economic aspects of ensuring the competitiveness of the enterprise, as well as general scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge. The results obtained. As a result of the research, the organizational and economic aspects of ensuring the competitiveness of an enterprise based on the determinants of market orientation are systematized. It is determined that the resource support of the enterprise's competitiveness consists of the following components: production, technological, personnel, financial, and innovation. Conclusion. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the fact that the results obtained expand certain provisions of the management theory and scientific approaches to ensuring and improving the competitiveness of the enterprise.

Modern innovative marketing technologies’ practical tools analysis as a way to increase the high-technology enterprises’ competitiveness

The article is devoted to the features’ study of the modern innovative technologies use in the marketing sphere, in order to establish the possibilities that allow modern industrial enterprises to increase their competitiveness level. The authors highlighted the theoretical and methodological foundations for modern innovative technologies application in the marketing sphere necessary for organizing the integrated management process of enterprise’s competitiveness indicators. The key features incident to modern marketing of innovations are determined. The lateral marketing improvement directions as a methodology for marketing approaches development and implementation in the company's activities to increase its efficiency in the competitive market environment formation for the production and sale of goods in modern economic conditions are considered. The main innovative marketing complex components are highlighted. The issues related to research in the innovative products’ marketing research field and forecasting the markets’ development are considered. The role played by modern marketing research in the scenario planning mechanisms’ development is determined. The factors that can have a significant impact on the industrial enterprises’ innovative activity indicators are structured. At the end of the article, the authors concluded that the current economic development level makes it possible to define innovation as a unique asset capable of qualitatively influencing the modern industrial enterprises’ competitiveness main indicators, which in turn will lead to the fundamentally new products, services and technologies emergence.

Developing a Strategy for the Digital Transformation of an Enterprise with Allowance for the Capabilities of Business Ecosystems

The presented study analyzes the processes of creating ecosystems in the context of external challenges and increasing the level of competitive market environment and global digitalization of business to develop a strategy for the digital transformation of an enterprise.Aim. The study aims to assess the practicability of creating ecosystems when developing a strategy for the digital transformation of traditional (“defensive”) enterprises and to provide recommendations for their utilization.Tasks. The authors analyze the characteristics, features, and typology of business ecosystems; substantiate the need to analyze and use the capabilities of business ecosystems in the development of a strategy for corporate development in the digital environment; describe the essence, key aspects of development, and propose a modular structure for the strategy of the digital transformation of an enterprise; develop a conceptual framework for the strategic management of the digital transformation of an enterprise; formulate recommendations for selecting ecosystems that would enhance the enterprise’s competitiveness.Methods. This study uses general scientific methods of cognition in various aspects to propose approaches and a conceptual model of the corporate digital transformation strategy with allowance for the capabilities of business ecosystems.Results. The authors show that in the context of the developing digital economy, business ecosystems have become a new way to organize economic activity due to their high efficiency and rapid scaling. There are two major types of ecosystems: centralized (transaction) ecosystems in the form of digital platforms and adaptive (solution) ecosystems formed by the orchestrating company to create a new value proposition by joint efforts of partners from various industries through direct interaction with each other. The study identifies stages in the development of a digital transformation strategy based on enhancing the enterprise’s competitiveness through its participation in the ecosystem(s) and formulate recommendations for selecting ecosystems that would improve the efficiency of the enterprise.Conclusions. Ecosystem development is a business trend that determines the competitiveness of enterprises and improves the efficiency of their operation in the digital environment. Therefore, under modern conditions, an enterprise should develop its digital transformation strategy based on the creation and/or use of business ecosystems.

Features of application of efficient competitiveness assessment of enterprise

Introduction: In today's business environment, issues related to the competitiveness and sustainability of a country, region, or individual enterprise are a priority. Moreover, the competition of the enterprise is the most important factor contributing to the improvement of the efficiency of the national economy. The experience of the most economically developed and competitive countries of the world shows that one of the main elements of enterprise competitiveness management is to assess the level of its economic development. The diversity of all the approaches and methods of assessing the competitiveness of the enterprise, discussed in the article, is combined with the lack of systematic ideas about the mechanisms, priorities and factors of the formation of the enterprise's competitiveness in the development of the national economy of the country, which is currently quite relevant topic. The purpose of the paper is to determine the features of methods of assessing the competitiveness of the enterprise. Results. One of the main elements of enterprise competitiveness management is to evaluate its functioning both qualitatively and quantitatively, although only quantitative assessment allows to measure and manage its existing competitiveness. In modern conditions, the assessment of the competitiveness of the enterprise and its products in the country is an important condition for the development of economic security of the country, state, regional and sectoral policies. Conclusion. To date, every enterprise, especially in unstable market conditions and the availability of both true and fake information, in practice requires the use of different methods and methodological approaches, which can be used to weigh all the analyzed indicators and results of competitive activity of the enterprise and to choose the necessary direction for further effective operations and stable competitive positions. The methods and methodological approaches presented in the article are all different with their advantages and disadvantages, as well as a certain set of indicators of competitive analysis of both external and internal activity of the enterprise. That is why, for the management of the enterprise it is necessary to select only the base of indicators that are necessary for them, and already with their help to choose the most acceptable and effective method of evaluating the competitive positions of the enterprise.

Use of Balanced Scorecard for Enterprise Competitiveness Assessment

The problem of defining the prospects, opportunities, limitations and methodological format of assessing the competitiveness of an enterprise in a transitive economy using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) concept has been considered. The relevance of the issue is due, on the one hand, to global trends in innovative development, and on the other hand, to the incompliance of performance of the post-socialist industrial enterprises with the characteristics of innovative development. The creation of mechanisms for improving the enterprise’s competitiveness and its appropriate assessment based on the use of advanced management practices and technologies is becoming increasingly relevant. The purpose of study is to improve methodological approach to the BSC-based assessment of competitiveness of a value-oriented enterprise, and to substantiate the prospects of effective integration of the BSC into the existing enterprise management system. This research paper justifies the possibility of using various methodological forms, including the simplest ones, of the Balanced Scorecard, which features a transformational nature, in the process of forming a balanced strategic management of enterprise. Methodical approach has been proposed for identification of the enterprise strategy directed at increase of its market value and strategic competitiveness. Matrix analysis was applied to assess the enterprise performance indicators; it revealed a relationship between the enterprise's competitive position and class of its innovation BSC-based strategies. To assess the enterprise’s competitiveness, an integral index of its investment attractiveness has been proposed, and to assess the class of the enterprise innovative strategies, an integral index of the enterprise innovations was calculated. The proposed methodological approach was used to perform expert sampling within the frame of indicators for determining the investment attractiveness and innovativeness of a metallurgical enterprise by the criteria of strategic orientation, efficiency and functionality. The study has analyzed the experience gained by the leading enterprises of Ukraine’s metallurgical complex in using BSC in a limited methodological format as a tool for identifying the strategy of an enterprise, assessing its competitiveness, innovativeness and investment attractiveness. The result of the study was the conclusion about the possibility of applying the simplest Balanced Scorecard forms as a catalyst for innovative transformations and developing balanced enterprise management in transition economies.