Competitive Strategies of Successful Local Firms in Central and Eastern Europe

Local companies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have to find the right competitive positioning to survive against Western competitors with superior resources and capabilities. In this explorative study we studied competitive strategies of successful firms from CEE. Sixteen firms from Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Russia were analyzed. The findings show that there exists a variety in strategic positionings among those firms. However, strategies based on a good quality at a lower price (good-value-for-money) are most common and effective. While internationalization is important, a high share of foreign sales is not automatically a profit driver. Industry has in our sample a major influence on financial performance: Firms active in the commodities, pharmaceutical and software sector are outperforming the ones in consumer and industrial markets. Still existing negative country-of-origin effects, low government support of R&D and internationalization efforts and weak enforcement of laws and international standards are restraining a faster development of these firms.