Influence of Financial Predictors on Competitiveness of Metal Processing Companies

Metal processing industry is an important sector of Croatian economy that contributes significantly to its competitiveness and assures industrial development of the Republic of Croatia. Competitive advantage is a key distinctive feature of a company on the market. In current circumstances, competitive advantage is more difficult to achieve and maintain than ever before because of constantly growing market competition. The main research objective is to investigate connection between selected financial predictors and to assess their influence on successfulness and achievement of competitive advantage of metal processing companies. The research is conducted on 578 small, medium and large metal processing companies aiming to determine the influence of financial predictors on their competitiveness. The research results indicate that there is a correlation between financial factors and the number of employees, total revenue and total expenses in small, medium and large companies in the metal processing industry. The research results also confirm that the observed financial predictors have influence on the competitiveness of small, medium and large companies Such influence is the strongest in small, and the weakest in large metal processing companies. This paper provides an insight into the influence of financial predictors on the competitiveness of metal processing companies, which will facilitate entrepreneurs to improve their company's competitive position on the market. Statistical analysis of research data was performed by statistical software MedCalc (R) Statistical Software version 20.026 and SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0.