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Spanish social economy enterprises (SEE), like capital-based ones, have been facing a general economic crisis since 2008. SEE in the Murcia region are no exception. They are mainly small and mediumsized companies and because of their lack of size and structure they face considerable competitive difficulties in fighting this situation. This paper is based on a survey of 102 social economy enterprises in the Murcia Region, essentially labour companies and cooperatives in the service and industrial sectors, which was conducted in early 2010. To examine the situation in which companies from these sectors - mostly micro-enterprises - find themselves, information was collected on their main ratios in 2009, their expectations and their assessment of the competitive context and the main difficulties they face in the current situation of economic and social crisis. The extensive questionnaire made it possible to classify these enterprises into four types, based on the evolution of their main economic ratios (jobs, sales, investment and profits), and in a second stage, to consider the relation with whether or not the companies had adopted active innovation strategies and strategic planning. This made it possible to define the companies that had been able to improve or at least maintain the levels of their principal ratios even in times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The achievement of competitiveness advantages by companies is something vital for their survival and success. With this paper we try to know which factors explain the competitive success of SMEs, using a sample of 1.201 Spanish enterprises that develop their activity in the industrial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]