Presja ze strony konkurentów a aktywność innowacyjna przedsiębiorstw w państwach rozwijających się

Article was written based on empirical data collected during the fourth round of research on the business environment conducted in 2008-2009 at the request of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank. Within the Visegrad countries studied, including 1349 enterprises. The main objective of this article was to analyze the influence of the intensity of the pressure from competitors on innovation activities. This article takes into account both the pressure from competitors in the introduction of new products by the company as well as pressure from competitors by the company to reduce production costs. Our audit is static and covers the period 2006-2008. Part of the article is based on methodical probit modeling. To reject or verify a positive test hypotheses assumed independent variables of varying intensity: a) pressure from competitors to introduce the company to produce new products, b) pressure from competitors by the company to reduce production costs. The dependent variables were adopted as the existence of the enterprise: a) investing activities, b) R & D, c) introduced new products into production, d) improved products, e) international quality certificates. The study supports the hypothesis that pressure from competitors stimulates the activity of innovative surveyed enterprises. The lack of or minimal pressure from competitors reduces the innovative activities of enterprises. Conclusions from the article are a contribution to the discussion on the role of competition in promoting innovation activity of enterprises from developing countries.