http://www.cjournal.cz Journal of Competitiveness Economy http://backend.userland.com/rss Sat, 07 Nov 2026 18:23:25 GMT http://www.cjournal.cz/imgs/cjournal_logo.png http://www.cjournal.cz http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=667 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=667 Urban financial stability is essential for sustainable regional development and the resilience of urban economic systems. However, existing studies provide limited city-level measurement of urban financial risk and rarely account for spatial interactions among cities. This study addresses these gaps by developing an integrated framework for the measurement and forecasting of urban financial risk in the Yangtze River Delta. A multidimensional indicator system is constructed, covering macroeconomic conditions, banking system risk, real estate market risk, and government finance and debt risk, with environmental factors and implicit local government debt risk indicators incorporated to capture emerging sources of financial vulnerability. Using panel data for 27 cities from 2008 to 2023, a dynamic composite evaluation method with an acceleration effect is applied to measure urban financial risk and analyze its spatiotemporal evolution, revealing significant spatial heterogeneity and clustering across cities. To further enhance predictive performance, a spatiotemporal forecasting framework is developed by integrating Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) with temporal deep learning models, where a trainable adjacency matrix is employed to capture inter-urban dependence. Empirical results show that the proposed models outperform benchmark time-series models, with the Serial Long Short-Term Memory–GCN model achieving the best performance in terms of R² and RMSE. Overall, the findings demonstrate that incorporating spatial dependence into temporal modeling significantly improves forecasting accuracy, providing methodological contributions to urban financial risk analysis and supporting the development of more effective early-warning systems. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=668 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=668 This study investigates how corruption-risk architectures inside firms and across their partner networks create implicit channels that affect organizational competitiveness. We develop two ISO 37001–consistent indicators, the job position corruption risk number (JPCRN) and the business associate corruption risk number (BACRN), and examine their linear dependencies in Slovak 18 ISO 37001–certified organizations. Our cross-sectional design uses organization-provided 1–5 risk ratings for decision-making managerial roles and for business associates with annual contracts >€100,000, from which we compute COUNTJP, COUNTRJP, %RJP_JP, AVG_JPCRN, COUNTBA, and AVG_BACRN. Dependencies are tested with Spearman correlations, complemented by size-stratified representativeness checks (χ²). Results show strong positive association between total managerial roles and the count of medium/high-risk roles (r = 0.93), negative association between managerial size and the share of risky roles (r = −0.76), no material link between headcount and average internal risk (r = 0.106), modest co-movement between average internal and associate risks (r = 0.20) and independence between managerial size and partner breadth (r = −0.014). It implies that competitiveness is threatened by the accumulation of risky approval nodes in larger structures and by concentration of pivotal risk in lean structures, while inside-outside co-movement calls for mirrored controls at the firm-partner boundary. The contribution is twofold: we provide auditable, ISO-aligned indicators that organizations can adopt, and we supply evidence on interdependencies that translate into actionable control priorities without modeling performance directly. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=669 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=669 As traditional competitive advantages such as scale efficiency and technological superiority become increasingly fragile, firms are under pressure to identify new, sustainable bases of competitiveness. Environmental, social, and governance performance has emerged as a critical strategic resource shaping firms’ competitiveness. This study develops an integrated theoretical framework grounded in the resource-based view and signaling theory, positing ESG as a strategic intangible asset that influences competitiveness through two primary, interconnected channels: financing conditions and brand equity. Using a panel dataset of Chinese listed firms and employing fixed-effects models, mediation tests, and interaction analysis, this study empirically examines the dual pathways through which ESG performance influences competitiveness. Strong ESG performance improves firms’ financing conditions by reducing risk exposure and enhancing information transparency, thereby lowering financing costs and easing resource constraints. Meanwhile, ESG performance significantly enhances brand competitiveness by generating positive media coverage and improving corporate reputation, which deepens stakeholder identification and market legitimacy. Importantly, the two channels interact in a mutually reinforcing manner. Brand competitiveness amplifies the effect of ESG on financing conditions, while improved financing conditions enable sustained investment in ESG and brand development. These findings suggest that ESG performance fosters a virtuous cycle between capital markets and product markets, reinforcing firms’ sustainable competitive advantage. Revealing how ESG can potentially build competitive barriers through a dynamic system of interconnected financial and reputational mechanisms, directly contributes to the competitiveness literature. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=670 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=670 The competitiveness of agriculture is one of the critical factors in on-going sustainable development conversations, especially in the Baltic countries, which are agriculturally dependent even today. This paper analyzes the agricultural competitiveness of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia using a comprehensive matrix that encompasses economics, technology, trade, institutions, and new sustainability. This study employs durable decision-making approaches like FUCOM and TOPSIS, allowing for an exhaustive and systematic analysis of the competitiveness antecedents across these countries. Accordingly, the outcomes show the most radical disparities within the Baltic states. Lithuania was identified as the most competitive country due to its extremely low cost advantage, higher labor productivity, and quality policy support. Estonia is second, due to evidence of technological competencies and successful market diversification. Latvia is left behind because of productivity issues and inadequate market diversification. These results underscore that interventions, such as spending on technology and infrastructure, market liberalization, and structural improvements, need to be crafted to meet country-level deficiencies. This study also highlights sustainability and climate change as factors that have influenced agricultural competitiveness as global markets pay more attention to issues of sustainability. The integration of MCDM methodologies guarantees an effective and credible evaluation process, which would provide the possibility of the replication of similar studies in other regions and fields. In filling these research gaps, this work can help policymakers and stakeholders to plan and propel the Baltic region towards a better, stronger, and more sustainable farming and agriculture sector. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=671 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=671 Amid intensifying global technological competition, external technological blockades have emerged as a critical source of uncertainty that reshapes corporate financial strategies. This study examines whether and how such blockades influence the reconfiguration of financial asset allocation through knowledge-driven strategic adaptation. Using panel data on listed enterprises from 2012 to 2022, we find that technological blockades are associated with dual effects on corporate financialization: a marked decline in the scale of financial assets—reflected in lower financial asset ratios and returns, and a structural shift toward greater portfolio diversification. Theoretically, this study proposes an integrative framework identifying four transmission channels through which blockades may reshape financial behavior: credit leverage contraction, supply chain funding crowding-out, business barrier intensification, and competitiveness weakening. Methodologically, it introduces an analytical framework for assessing scale-structure dual effects in financialization dynamics under exogenous shocks. Notably, the evidence reveals pronounced contextual heterogeneity: both scale and structural effects are concentrated among enterprises with limited core technology reserves, lower TFP, lower market share, lower R&D intensity, and lower patent quality. Furthermore, supply chain concentration, digital transformation, and Industry-University-Research collaboration are found to amplify these effects. These findings offer novel insights into how knowledge constraints may trigger strategic asset reallocation in emerging markets, contributing to innovation systems literature by elucidating financialization adjustment mechanisms under technological pressure. The research offers suggestive, evidence-based guidance for enterprises navigating innovation constraints while maintaining financial resilience. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=672 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=672 Family firms play a central role in the tourism and accommodation sector, offering a reputational advantage that can be leveraged through branding and communication. Family businesses are also predominant among the ventures developed by Indigenous entrepreneurs. This study examines how communicating the family identity of a family-owned hotel influences tourist immersion in the experience, and how it influences Word-of-mouth and Visit Intention through tourist attitudes. We conducted an online experiment in which participants interacted with fictitious websites of family-owned hotels from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and subsequently completed a survey, resulting in a sample of 440 Chilean participants. Results show that conveying a strong family identity significantly enhances tourist immersion in the experience, which in turn improves attitudes toward both the website and the destination, ultimately increasing visit intention and recommendation behavior. These findings underscore the strategic value of family identity as a signaling mechanism in tourism marketing. The study offers theoretical contributions to the literature on family-firm branding and hospitality, and practical implications for family-run businesses aiming to improve consumer response to branding strategies. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=673 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=673 Green finance serves as a critical enabling instrument and resource-allocation mechanism, while the green transformation of the manufacturing industry constitutes both the core implementation domain and the ultimate objective of industrial upgrading. The effective coupling and coordinated development between these two dimensions represent a key pathway for achieving sustainable competitiveness. This study investigates how green finance develops in conjunction with the green transformation of manufacturing and examines whether the interaction between these two processes contributes to sustainable competitiveness. Using provincial-level data for 30 Chinese provinces over the 2011-2023 period, separate multidimensional indicator systems are developed to quantify green finance development and the green transformation of manufacturing. The empirical framework combines several complementary techniques: entropy-weighted TOPSIS for green finance assessment, a super-efficiency SBM model for manufacturing transformation, an improved coupling-coordination model for evaluating their interaction, Dagum Gini decomposition for regional disparities, and kernel density estimation for distributional dynamics. Sustainable competitiveness is represented by the degree of coordination between the two systems, reflecting the extent to which financial development and manufacturing transformation progress in a mutually compatible manner while supporting economic and environmental objectives. The empirical results reveal a general upward trajectory in coordination between green finance and manufacturing transformation, suggesting that their development has become increasingly synchronized across Chinese provinces. Despite this overall improvement, substantial spatial heterogeneity remains: provinces in the eastern region generally exhibit stronger coordination than those in the other regional groups. The study proposes policy recommendations to enhance alignment between green finance and industrial transformation, including developing innovation-driven financial instruments, strengthening policy coordination, and improving green financial market mechanisms. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=674 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=674 This article focuses on the effectiveness of state subsidies for fleet renewal across Europe. The research analyzes and subsequently compares the situation in the Czech Republic and in other European countries, using separate country-level time series data. The theoretical framework is based on Mankiw’s theory of long-term consumption, the validity of which has not previously been confirmed by empirical data in several research studies. This discrepancy is known in the scientific literature as Mankiw’s puzzle. The methodological part of the research used statistical testing to determine the extent to which the puzzle is realized in individual European countries. The testing was carried out on long time series, focusing on two key variables: newly registered cars and household expenditure on durable goods. The formal evaluation rejected the universal validity of the strict ARMA(1,1) specification, although significant structural differences were identified across the sample. On this basis, a clear country typology was established, dividing European economies into high-inertia automotive markets, structural postponers, and martingale adaptors. This typology demonstrates how consumption persistence determines the transmission and ultimate efficacy of car scrapping policies for electromobility adoption and regional economic competitiveness. The research has also revealed a systemic connection between the competitiveness of automotive production and the sustainability of the fleet ecosystem. In the Czech Republic, the effective replacement of old cars with combustion engines is conditioned by subsidies for their disposal, whereas in other countries the expected effect of such subsidies is marginal. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=675 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=675 Amidst increasingly globalised urban competition, this study investigates how comprehensive openness shapes urban competitiveness in emerging economies. Building on panel data from 288 Chinese prefecture-level cities (2008–2023), we construct multidimensional indices for comprehensive openness and urban competitiveness and employ dynamic panel, moderating effect, and spatial econometric models to examine the mechanisms, heterogeneity, and spatial spillovers of comprehensive openness. Results show the following. First, comprehensive openness significantly enhances urban competitiveness in the short (?̂?=0.05) and long (?̂?=0.17) terms, with the long-term effect amplified by the accumulation of factor endowments, business environment quality, and global position. Second, this positive impact is channeled through improved green innovation efficiency and increased global connectivity, enhanced by high-quality institutional environments and FinTech development. Third, aligning with the dynamic adaptation theory in new structural economics, the effectiveness of comprehensive openness is contingent upon a city’s inherent global structural position—specifically, its embeddedness in global networks and maturity of its innovation ecosystem. Fourth, we identify a ‘local gain, neighbour loss’ pattern in spatial spillovers, highlighting the need for regional coordination policies to mitigate resource misallocation. Finally, we benchmark results against global city rankings and propose a tiered opening-up strategy, suggesting differentiated goals for cities based on their developmental tiers, such as contesting global rule-making authority, forging specialised functional platforms, achieving breakthrough through specialised niches, or enhancing regional connectivity. This study offers empirical insights for cities in emerging economies seeking to ascend the global urban hierarchy through strategic openness. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=676 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=676 Córdoba, recognised as a cultural hub with four UNESCO World Heritage declarations, possesses a rich heritage that makes it an important subject for studying its image as a tourist destination based on tourists’ perceptions. This research aims to enhance the scientific literature on the affective and cognitive images of World Heritage Sites (WHSs), and to this end, the relationship between visitors' previous experiences and their tourist motivations and their perceived image of their destination was analysed, as well as its influence on tourist satisfaction and loyalty. For this purpose, a structured questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of tourists who visited the city of Córdoba during the period between December 2023 and November 2024, with a total of 712 responses being received. Based on the theoretical foundations provided by the academic literature, a structural model is proposed and validated that identifies observable and latent variables involved in the formation of the destination image. The model fitted the data well, attending to both incremental and absolute fit measures (χ2/df = 3.311; CFI = 0.925; TLI= 0.916; GFI = 0.990; RMSEA = 0.057; and SRMR = 0.059) The findings show that both tourist motivations and previous visits to a destination have a significant impact on the construction of its tourist image, which in turn affects visitor satisfaction and loyalty levels. Bootstrapping analysis demonstrates the role of satisfaction as a mediating variable between destination image and loyalty. However, the mediation is partial, as there is a statistically significant direct effect between destination image and loyalty. These results have important implications for public and private tourism managers, as they suggest strategies aimed at strengthening the image of the city of Córdoba as a heritage tourist destination. The study is in line with the journal's editorial objectives in contributing to knowledge that can be applied to improving the competitiveness of heritage destinations, such as the city of Córdoba, and its findings can be extrapolated to similar tourist destinations. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=677 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=677 This study explores the application of artificial-intelligence technology in power prediction, demonstrating that deep learning-based high-precision forecasting can provide critical technical support for power system stability in complex environments. By integrating deep-learning methods, this study proposes a hybrid approach combining complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise and variational mode decomposition to uncover intrinsic patterns in photovoltaic power sequences. A convolutional neural network – bidirectional long short-term memory – Transformer prediction model is constructed, and the slime mold algorithm is introduced to optimize its hyperparameters. The model is validated using heterogeneous datasets from two geographically distinct regions—the East China Plain and Central China Hills—facilitating cross-climate and cross-terrain experimentation. The impact of improved prediction accuracy on power-system stability is illustrated through theoretical analyses and practical cases from the two regions. Results show that the integrated signal decomposition and deep-learning model maintains high prediction accuracy under complex climatic and topographic conditions, contributing to power system stability. A key innovation of this research lies in the construction of an intelligent forecasting framework that provides a reliable decision-support tool for power enterprises in the two regions, mitigating the operational risks caused by dispatch deviations and enhancing the system stability and management efficacy during the energy-structure transition. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=678 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=678 This study develops a comprehensive framework for managing open innovation ecosystems in the fifth industrial revolution (5IR) to enhance competitiveness at firm, sectoral, and national levels. The research addresses critical deficiencies in existing ecosystem management and re-evaluates traditional open innovation paradigms to support sustainable competitive advantage in technology-driven environments. A mixed-methods approach was employed. The qualitative phase involved semi-structured interviews with 12 purposively selected experts, practitioners, and policymakers until theoretical saturation. In the quantitative phase, 350 valid questionnaires were analyzed using interpretive structural modeling (ISM), MICMAC, and structural equation modeling (SEM) to validate the framework. The research identifies seven critical dimensions: ecosystem governance, inter-organizational collaboration, data and technology management, infrastructure development, human resource empowerment, transparency and oversight, and long-term sustainability. Results indicate that infrastructure development is the most crucial foundational factor (impact factor: 0.87), with a calculated threshold of 0.65 for ecosystem success. The findings demonstrate that integrating technological, human, and institutional dimensions is essential for high-performing innovation ecosystems. Enhancements at foundational levels, specifically infrastructure, yield multiplier effects that strengthen innovation capacity and overall competitive positioning. This framework provides actionable insights for policymakers and managers to foster resilient and competitive innovation ecosystems in the 5IR era. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=679 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=679 This study explores the relationship between foreign characteristics and firm performance by examining the impact of foreign ownership and the presence of foreign board members. It provides empirical evidence on the role of foreign participation in enhancing firm performance during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent recovery period. Using a dataset of 359 non-financial firms listed in Vietnam—an emerging market—between 2017 and 2023, with over 2,500 observations, our findings reveal that foreign characteristics play a crucial role in improving firm performance. Specifically, foreign ownership has a positive and significant effect on both market value (Tobin's Q) and return on assets (ROA). The consistent positive impact across different periods highlights the substantial benefits that Vietnamese firms gain from foreign investors. However, while the presence of foreign board members appears beneficial, its impact on firm performance remains inconclusive across different time frames. Moreover, the interaction between foreign ownership ratio and leverage ratio (FO_LEV) has a significantly negative effect on ROA, suggesting that a high debt ratio weakens the positive influence of foreign ownership. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and business leaders in developing strategies to attract foreign investment, enhance corporate governance, and strengthen firms’ competitive advantages in the global market. http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=680 http://www.cjournal.cz/index.php?hid=clanek&cid=680 For family firms operating within the digital economy, aligning digital transformation (DT) with governance reform is critical, as this synergy strengthens competitive positioning through improved organizational adaptability. Drawing on resource dependence theory and agency theory, this paper explores how corporate DT shapes family control using a sample of Chinese A-share listed family enterprises from 2008 to 2022. The study reveals the following. (1) corporate DT has a negative effect on family control. Distinguishing between foundational and application-level DT, our results reveal that the depth of underlying digital technology is negatively and significantly correlated with family control, while the coefficient on practical digital applications is statistically insignificant. This finding holds across robustness checks. (2) The analysis of resource constraint effects shows that when family firms are faced with more serious family human capital and financial capital constraints, the negative impact of DT and digital underlying technology on family control is more significant. (3) Evidence regarding the governance-enhancing effect reveals that, among enterprises with greater agency costs, DT mitigates internal information asymmetry and improves internal control quality, which raises families’ willingness to decrease their control intensity. This suggests that enterprise DT negatively affects family control through both resource constraint and governance enhancement effects. This study contributes novel understandings of the consequences of DT in family firms and offers important practical implications for corporate governance.