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This research paper is focused on the competitive market map as the key tool for classifying enterprises (or countries) in terms of their shares and market positions, as well as on the competitiveness of the Slovak Republic at the international level through the GCI index. This article has three main sections, with first concentrating on a literature review of the issue of competitiveness as the crucial term in this paper. The second main part deals with the competitive market map, in which numerous equations can be found to aid in understanding the problem of competition as a whole. This part also contains a section on the matrix compilation of the competitive market map. The third main section of the article deals with competitiveness measurement in the global world with the emphasis on the Slovak Republic. Here an evaluation of countries through the Global competitiveness index as well as a SWOT analysis of enterprise competitiveness in the Slovak Republic is presented. The Slovak position competitiveness ranking of 41st shows an improvement over previous years, although several challenging issues remain to be resolved by the national government in the near future. The main goal of this article is to evaluate the competitiveness of Slovak Republic on the international scale based on the competitive market map, a tool which is used as the basis for an evaluation of the competitive position of a particular firm as well as that of a particular nation.

In recent years, a decline in competitiveness and in the quality of the business environment measurements has been reflected in the Slovak Republic, as noted, for example, in the assessments of the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, as well as in the business environment index (BEI from Business Alliance of Slovakia PAS), data from which we have used in our research. A multiple regression analysis along with the correlation analysis confirmed our assumption that in the Slovak Republic a state of institutional hysteresis exists. The hysteresis effect indicates rigidity despite the economic recovery, not restoring the original balance after a certain failure in the economic process. In our case, many external environment subindeces tend to decline while macroeconomic variables (employment, value added, R&D expenditures, revenues from corporate taxes) grow. On the other hand, the internal factors of a company, through which it itself affects the environment, such as the level of liquidity or innovation, is growing. We conclude that the companies we examined have adapted. The process of improving the assessment of the country (corruption, law enforcement, equality before the law, functioning of the judiciary) will become much more expensive over time. The result of this change should be an entrepreneurial environment in which the entrepreneur does not have to deal with the ongoing optimization of taxes and levies, a condition which in the long run would lead to the economic recovery in the Slovak Republic and to improvements in competitiveness.

Protecting the environment and maintaining the EU’s competitiveness must be inextricably linked. From this perspective, the scope of present article may be seen as quite timely. Air pollution is the main environmental risk factor contributing to deterioration of the health of the population, and consequently influences the economic development of the state. The usage of hard fuels for the heating of local dwellings is one of the most important sources of local air pollution. The aim of this paper is to identify the relationship between the pollution caused by heating and the health of the population. The health status of the population was assessed using the potential years of life lost per 100,000 inhabitants. Data on the energy sources used for heating were taken from a survey of all dwellings in the Slovak Republic from the 2011 census of inhabitants, homes and apartments. To create clusters of similar municipalities in terms of the variables considered, we used the fuzzy cluster analysis for individual size-standard groups of municipalities. The map view of the fuzzy cluster analysis results confirmed the division of the Slovak Republic into two regions – the north, which showed more favorable results and the south, which showed negative findings. The membership function values of the first cluster indicate a significant positive spatial autocorrelation as measured by Moran’s coefficient. A local Moran cluster map identified the areas of interest investigated below.

This research paper is focused on the competitive market map as the key tool for classifying enterprises (or countries) in terms of their shares and market positions, as well as on the competitiveness of the Slovak Republic at the international level through the GCI index. This article has three main sections, with first concentrating on a literature review of the issue of competitiveness as the crucial term in this paper. The second main part deals with the competitive market map, in which numerous equations can be found to aid in understanding the problem of competition as a whole. This part also contains a section on the matrix compilation of the competitive market map. The third main section of the article deals with competitiveness measurement in the global world with the emphasis on the Slovak Republic. Here an evaluation of countries through the Global competitiveness index as well as a SWOT analysis of enterprise competitiveness in the Slovak Republic is presented. The Slovak position competitiveness ranking of 41st shows an improvement over previous years, although several challenging issues remain to be resolved by the national government in the near future. The main goal of this article is to evaluate the competitiveness of Slovak Republic on the international scale based on the competitive market map, a tool which is used as the basis for an evaluation of the competitive position of a particular firm as well as that of a particular nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a decline in competitiveness and in the quality of the business environment measurements has been reflected in the Slovak Republic, as noted, for example, in the assessments of the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, as well as in the business environment index (BEI from Business Alliance of Slovakia PAS), data from which we have used in our research. A multiple regression analysis along with the correlation analysis confirmed our assumption that in the Slovak Republic a state of institutional hysteresis exists. The hysteresis effect indicates rigidity despite the economic recovery, not restoring the original balance after a certain failure in the economic process. In our case, many external environment subindeces tend to decline while macroeconomic variables (employment, value added, R&D expenditures, revenues from corporate taxes) grow. On the other hand, the internal factors of a company, through which it itself affects the environment, such as the level of liquidity or innovation, is growing. We conclude that the companies we examined have adapted. The process of improving the assessment of the country (corruption, law enforcement, equality before the law, functioning of the judiciary) will become much more expensive over time. The result of this change should be an entrepreneurial environment in which the entrepreneur does not have to deal with the ongoing optimization of taxes and levies, a condition which in the long run would lead to the economic recovery in the Slovak Republic and to improvements in competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protecting the environment and maintaining the EU's competitiveness must be inextricably linked. From this perspective, the scope of present article may be seen as quite timely. Air pollution is the main environmental risk factor contributing to deterioration of the health of the population, and consequently influences the economic development of the state. The usage of hard fuels for the heating of local dwellings is one of the most important sources of local air pollution. The aim of this paper is to identify the relationship between the pollution caused by heating and the health of the population. The health status of the population was assessed using the potential years of life lost per 100,000 inhabitants. Data on the energy sources used for heating were taken from a survey of all dwellings in the Slovak Republic from the 2011 census of inhabitants, homes and apartments. To create clusters of similar municipalities in terms of the variables considered, we used the fuzzy cluster analysis for individual size-standard groups of municipalities. The map view of the fuzzy cluster analysis results confirmed the division of the Slovak Republic into two regions - the north, which showed more favorable results and the south, which showed negative findings. The membership function values of the first cluster indicate a significant positive spatial autocorrelation as measured by Moran's coefficient. A local Moran cluster map identified the areas of interest investigated below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]