JEEMS - Rainer Hampp Verlag

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Managers in the transformation process of Eastern Europe The objectives of Slovenian businesses appear to be pretty stable during the transition period. They are quite similar to the most important objectives of Western European business firms. Among the ten most important objectives eight of them are equal. Both groups of managers consider quality as the most important strategic objective and that certainly reflects the current world's trend. Slovenian managers emphasized the necessity of cost reduction more than Western European managers did what is no doubt related to the strategic restructuring process of the Slovenian economy. Table 8: The top managers' objectives as employers Good working conditions Saving jobs Self-fulfilment Improving my employees' life style Profit sharing 370 Objective Mean weighted score (Slovenia) Participation of employees in ownership Job creation Participation of employees in decision-making 4.19 (1) 3.98 (2) 3.86 (5) 3.83 (4) 3.47 (3) 3.41 (7) 3.30 (6) 3.11 (8) Mean weighted score (Stratos) 4.01 (1) 3.82 (2) 3.69 (3) 3.42 (4) 2.39 (7) 2.96 (6) 2.98 (5) 1.78 (8) Note: 1) A five point scale was used in the assessment: 1 = no importance, 5 = very high importance 2) In the brackets there are ranks assigned to an individual value or attitude in the 1994 research 3) In the brackets in Stratos reesearch there are ranks assigned to an individual value or attitude according to the Stratos research. 5. Business strategies of Slovenian enterprises The essence of a business strategy is linked to the definition of how a strategic business unit can achieve its competitive advantage (Porter, 1985: 11). There could be many strategic factors for achieving a competitive advantage. Let us look into the factors that are considered to be the most important for providing a competitive advantage for strategic product groups of Slovenian enterprises on their main market! Managing directors or top management assessed the importance of 26 factors by assigning to each of them different weights (1= no importance, 2= little importance, 3= medium importance, 4= great importance, and 5= very great importance). If we multiply the number of assessments of each category with the appropriate weight, we are able to compute the average weighted assessment for each factor. This average weighted assessment enables <strong>JEEMS</strong> 4/ 1997
Danijel Pucko / Matej Lahovnik us to identify the most important factors, which determine a competitive advantage. Those factors have been computed for Slovenian enterprises and are shown in Table 10. Table 9: The most important strategic objectives of the Slovenian "old" business firms in the 1996 and Western European enterprises 1. Product quality 2. Cost reduction 3. Good liquidity 4. Productivity 5. Profit 6-7. Creativity and innovations 6-7. Flexibility 8. Financial independence 9. Market share 10. Economic authonomy 11. Company image 12. Growth Objective Mean weighted score (Slovenia) 4.84 (1) 4.65 (2) 4.56 (4) 4.54 (3) 4.48 (5) 4.40 (7) 4.40 (8) 4.28 (6) 4.25 (9) 4.17 (12) 4.15 (10) 4.06 (11) Mean weighted score (Stratos) 4.48 (1) 4.06 (9) 4.31 (3) 4.21 (4) 4.04 (10) 4.12 (7) 4.18 (5) 4.13 (6) 3.66 (12) 3.81 (11) 4.07 (8) 3.60 (13) Note: 1) A five point scale was used in the assessment: 1 = no importance, 5 = very high importance 2) In the brackets there are ranks assigned to an individual value or attitude in the 1994 research 3) In the brackets in Stratos research there are ranks assigned to an individual value or attitude according to the Stratos research. Links between the Slovenian firms' objectives and the top managers' personal objectives on one hand and, on the other hand, links between them and the top managers' ranking of the factors of the competitive advantage apparently exist, too (see Table 10). The roots of competitive advantages in Slovenia are, according to both research projects, quite similar to those in Western European countries. Slovenian managers attribute more importance to low costs and less importance to firm's reputation than their Western European counterparts but otherwise we may identify many similarities. Most Slovenian enterprises implement a niche strategy (53%) on their market. One quarter of firms apply a product differentiation strategy. The cost leadership strategy is implemented by one fifth of Slovenian firms. As niche <strong>JEEMS</strong> 4/ 1997 371
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Book Reviews von Jean Jaques Obrech
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