Regional development is associated with a number of factors. It seems nowadays that there are two main approaches to that issue: necessity of increasing the competitiveness on the one hand, and ...aiming at the sustainable development on the other. Some authors belive that pursuit to improve competitiveness excludes sustainable development, others do not share the opinion. However, it seems to be important not to oppose these two ideas each other but to unite them. Recently, these two approaches: endeavour to improve the competitiveness and implemenentation of the sustainable development’s principles into the practice have been used more and more combined as an idea of sustainable competitiveness. This paper aims to present an analysis of the chosen definitions and of the main terms describing competitiveness. It also discusses goals and definitions of sustainable development and other terms related to that concept in order to to find similarities between these two ideas, particulary at the regional level. Similarattributes for competitiveness and sustainability were identified as following: improvement of the quality of life and economic development (in case of competitiveness only in the material field), implementation of ecological innovations and significant role of local and regional authorities. These two concepts are also strictly related to idea of regional resilience. Both, competitive and sustainable regions must be resilient. The article is divided into three main parts. The first presents definitions and factors of regional competitiveness. This is followed by a presentation of definitions and components of sustainable development. The third part then looks similarities between regional competitiveness and sustainability.
High-speed railway (HSR) decreases the geographic and temporal constraints between cities, which may exert influence on inter-city transportation market. The impact of HSR on airlines has been well ...studied, while studies relevant to its positioning and relationship with inter-city coach (ICC) are limited. Based upon a four-year longitudinal panel dataset of ICC in Jiangsu Province, China, we utilize a difference-in-differences (DID) method to explore the effects of HSR opening on measuring the sustainable competitiveness of ICC. The results show that the HSR opening dramatically reduces ICC volumes. By further exploring the effect of service differences, we construct continuous DID models and find that ICC passengers are more concerned about travel time than price. Furthermore, the influence of HSR on ICC routes is not statistically significant for distances within 100 km, but becomes significant for distances exceeding 100 km, with the most pronounced impact observed on routes surpassing 150 km in length. In addition, we find that the ICC volumes of feeder routes overlapping with HSR service have decreased, while those without HSR service have tended to increase. The findings of this study could provide beneficial insights into the sustainability and coordinated development of inter-city transportation services.
•High-speed railway (HSR) opening dramatically reduces inter-city coach (ICC) volumes.•ICC passengers are more concerned about travel time than price.•Long ICC routes, especially those over 100 km, are more affected than short routes, and the associated impact becomes more noticeable as the route length increases.•ICC volumes of the feeder routes that overlap with HSR service decrease, while those without HSR service tend to increase.
Purpose
This study aims at developing a framework to investigate and analyze sustainable competitiveness in tourism destinations.
Design/methodology/approach
This study has a qualitative approach, ...and it has been conducted by use of a comprehensive literature review. First, the key concepts of the study such as destination competitiveness, sustainable development, stakeholders’ attitude and performance and tourist loyalty were identified. Then, an integrative review was conducted on literature regarding the mentioned keywords. More related resources were selected and critically reviewed to explore gaps. For this purpose, a search was conducted at databases such as Emerald, Elsevier and ScienceDirect.
Findings
An appropriate framework for tourism sustainable development and, in particular, for its sustainable competitiveness, requires considering economic, sociocultural and ecological dimensions on the one hand, and considering all stakeholders participating in tourism process on the other hand.
Research limitations/implications
The model suggested in this study can be applied by managers and policymakers in various destinations to investigate true competitiveness situation of their tourist destinations. It also can be theoretically a start point to raise further issues and studies on destination competitiveness by adopting a new sustainability approach.
Originality/value
From reviewing previous studies, it is clear that most models developed on destination competitiveness only consider creation of competitiveness and destination’s characteristics. In addition, a sustainability approach has rarely been considered in these studies. A model or a framework specially designed for evaluating and investigating sustainability of destination competitiveness has not been developed yet. In this sense, the proposed framework in this study is a new one. What differentiates this model with previous ones is the sustainability approach to the competitiveness and taking all stakeholders of the competition process into account.
Purpose. The purpose of this paper was to highlight the results of the study of the influence of the soil fertility and financial support on the formation of sustainable competitiveness of Ukrainian ...agricultural enterprises. Methodology / approach. To achieve the purpose, we used such methods: correlation analysis (to identify and assess the close relationship between the ecological-agrochemical assessment of soils, financial support per hectare, and the sustainable competitiveness); econometric modeling (to develop a mathematical model of the dependence of the subindex of competitiveness by the yield on the ecological-agrochemical assessment of soils and the financial support per hectare); economic-statistical and monographic (for the assessment and analysis of the influence of the ecological-agrochemical assessment of soils and financial support per hectare on the formation of sustainable competitiveness); abstract-and-logical (for generalization and analysis of the research results); graphical (for the visual representation of the revealed dependencies). The study was performed on a selected sample of agricultural enterprises of districts of Kharkiv, Volyn and Chernihiv region, which represent all the soil-climatic zones of Ukraine. The time range of this research covers the years 2010–2016. The database of the 189 observations in Kharkiv region, 93 – in Volyn region and 88 – in Chernihiv region was as the empirical basis. Results. This paper presents empirical evidence for the impact of the soil fertility and financial support on the formation of sustainable competitiveness of enterprises. The obtained results prove the hypothesis of a positive relationship between the ecological-agrochemical assessment of soils, financial support per hectare, and the sustainable competitiveness of subjects, however, the level of impact of soil fertility differs significantly in different soil-climatic conditions. It is shown that soil fertility and financial support can sometimes act as substitutes, for example, in a zone of insufficient moisture or low soil fertility. Increasing the financial support for agricultural production per hectare may be a strategy to increase productivity when soils are less fertile. Originality / scientific novelty. For the first time, one- and two-factor linear and quadratic econometric models were developed, which made it possible to carry out quantitative assessment of the impact of the ecological-agrochemical assessment of soils and the financial support per hectare on the formation of the subindex of competitiveness by the yield in various soil-climatic zones of Ukraine. The provision on the formation of the subindex of competitiveness by the yield under the conditions of the economic law of diminishing returns, was further developed. Practical value / implications. The main results of the study can be used for (i) estimation and forecasting of the level of competitiveness depending on the ecological-agrochemical assessment of soils and the financial support per hectare; (ii) determining the effect of measures to improve the soil fertility on the competitiveness; (iii) determining the impact of soil degradation on competitiveness of agribusiness entities; (iv) identification of reserves to improve competitiveness.
Design firms have been changing to become innovation consulting agencies, while business companies are improving their use of design innovation capacity for innovative problem-solving approaches. ...This study aims to identify how the organizational resource components of design firms affect the competitiveness of design outsourcing through the medium of absorptive capacity, innovation capacity, and design innovativeness. To do this, a total of 389 surveys from employees of design firms of seven regions in Korea were collected and analyzed. The analysis results show that tangible and human resource have a significant impact on absorptive capacity and innovation capacity, and intangible resource do the same on absorptive capacity. It was found that intangible resource would not have a significant impact on innovation capacity. This indicates that design firms should also prioritize fostering creative talent and strengthening financial and physical support for organizational activities. In addition, this study confirmed that enhanced absorptive capacity within the organization has a positive effect on the design innovativeness, and that the resource and capacity management of design firms are important to improve design innovativeness and outsourcing competitiveness.
In the shipping industry, the sustainability of the shipping companies has received more attention besides the economic benefits. A suitable evaluation model can provide a credible sustainable ...improvement test and guide the operation and management of shipping companies. This study is concerned with a granular evaluation model for the sustainable competitiveness evaluation of container liners, where the interval linguistic version of the analytic hierarchy process is designed for comparing alternatives comprehensively. To obtain ideal consistent preference relations, we propose a modification method by constructing information granules and using particle swarm optimization. Moreover, based on the combination of individual preference relations and experts’ weights obtained from the social network, the aggregated overall opinion of alternatives is achieved. Furthermore, a case study evaluating the sustainable competitiveness of container liners is conducted to support the proposed evaluation framework’s feasibility and practicality.
Consumer behavior differs from country to country, which may implicitly influence the financial performance of e-commerce companies. The paper’s objective is to study the characteristics of the ...companies from the Romanian e-commerce market for sustainable competitiveness. The empirical analysis was a quantitative and qualitative one. For the qualitative analysis of the studied sample, variables that represent the specific characteristics of companies were taken into account, the most relevant of which will be included as control variables in econometric models. Research results highlight that the recognized companies registered lower values of financial performance, they influence each other and for the company to improve the customer relationship, they have to invest in brand consolidation. The practical implications can be for managers to focus on companies’ branding, improving customer relations, disclosing more information about the company, the products they sell online, and sustainability actions to have sustainable competitiveness.
Slow production methods are gaining ground based on the concept of slow fashion. Slowness assumes that specialised clothing production remains local, and consumption is centred on the superior ...quality which often involves craft production. Competitiveness represents a major challenge in slow manufacture, as highly specialised clothing companies may need to be viable within the high salaries labour ecosystem of developed economies. The study proposes a model based on the theories of relational production networks, coopetition and sustainable competitiveness in urbanisation economies. It attempts to explore empirically how slowness in high-end clothing production can be competitive. A single case study is adopted to investigate the production network of the Savile Row tailors, where tailoring firms have demonstrated a remarkable resilience for nearly two centuries. It appears that in the flat and self-reliant tailoring network, the participant firms have managed to acquire capabilities and specialised knowledge, and transformed them into core competences, thus generating sustainable competitiveness.
The promotion of competitiveness of regions is a key issue nowadays. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of territorial dimension it caused, the approach towards the ...concept of regional competitiveness needs to be reformulated in which the sustainability perspective is underlined. Thus, the composition of factors that determine regional competitiveness should be redefined in a way that not only economic but to a greater degree social and concurrently environmental factors need to be considered. The objective of the paper is to discuss the concept of sustainable regional competitiveness and to identify factors that are of utmost importance for this regional competitiveness. The position of particular CEE regions in light of the selected indicators that could determine sustainable competitiveness has been examined. The analysis has allowed us to identify some factors that are crucial for sustainable regional competitiveness in the regions of CEE countries to enable achieving long-term growth in the sustainable manner. This study contributes to the research through proposing some factors that could reflect particular dimensions of sustainable competitiveness in CEE regions, by providing a measure of sustainable competitiveness and through identifying the position of CEE regions in terms of sustainable competitiveness. The support of these key factors may be taken into consideration while planning the interventions within the regional policy.
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