Competitiveness of Small and Medium Businesses and Competitive Pressure in the Manufacturing Industry

In this paper, the relationship between internal competitiveness factors and the perception of Russian SMEs' level of competitiveness are examined, based on a secondary analysis of the RuFIGE (Russian enterprises in the global economy) survey data obtained in 2014 by 1,677 Russian industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It comes out that neither the high technological level, the introduction of the CRM system, nor the availability of external financing are sufficient for Russian manufacturing SMEs to feel competitive on the global market. From the other side, those manufacturing SMEs whose main competitors are domestic enterprises, count neither the technological level nor the presence of a CRM system to be necessary factors for competitiveness. Further, there are different "weight categories" among Russian manufacturing SMEs. SME owners, who work only on local markets, are immune to competition from large foreign companies and consider Russian firms similar to their own as their main competitors. Those who work on the whole Russian market feel a great amount of competitive pressure from foreign manufacturers. The conclusion provides theoretical and practical recommendations on the results of this study.