Clustering Balkan Countries Based on Competitiveness Factors: A Strategic Perspective

Abstract

Prior to directing their investments, strategy makers at national and firm level need to know competitive advantages and disadvantages in a country or region. By bearing this need in mind, this study aims to examine competitive factors in Balkan countries to develop a road map for investors. To do this, we used World Economic Forum's "Global Competitivenes Index" to analyse the case of Balkan countries as a region to cluster and compare them based on Global competitiveness factors. Analysis results pointed out that Balkan countries were clustered in two groups and scored lower or medium level on almost all competitive factors as the region. Based on these findings, authors suggested various strategic recommendations at micro and macro level.

A Multi-criteria Assessment Approach for the Evaluation of Railway Transport in the Balkan Region

“…The second condition is checked for acceptable stability in decision making. This means that alternative A (1) is the best ranked also by parameters S or/and R for all values of v.…”

“…Step 4: Examination of the stability of the optimal result. Alternative A (1) which is the best ranked by the minimum of index Q j has to satisfy two conditions.…”

“…If one of both conditions is not satisfied, then a set of compromise solutions is proposed, which consists of the following: -Alternatives A (1) and A (2) if only the second condition is not satisfied, or -Alternatives A (1) and A (2) ,..., A (M) if the first condition is not satisfied; A (M) is determined by the relation for maximum M (the positions of these alternatives are 'in closeness').…”

“…In [1] the Balkan region has been studied for the impact of sustainable competition in the region using twelve factors of the World Economic Forum. The authors have grouped the studied factors into three sub-indices as the basic requirements: efficiency enhancers, innovation and sophistication criteria.…”