Purpose

Competitiveness is a multidimensional construct, related to a number of external and internal company factors. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between the application of small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) compensation incentives as an index/element of human system development and competitiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

A unique primary data set drawn from the Global Competitiveness Project on SMEs’ competitiveness was analysed, using cross-sectional data of 784 firms. First, descriptive statistics were used to show the data set peculiarities. Second, a forward logistic regression was applied to show the effects on the application of compensation incentives. A 25.1% of explanatory power was found by targeting the application of compensation systems by 7 firm-level principal factors and 30 control variables.

Findings

The findings suggest that there is a higher chance of the application of compensation incentives in cases when the employees possess a more substantial tacit knowledge and formal and informal relationship networks. It is also positively impacted by the higher level of intra-company manifestation of knowledge.

Research limitations/implications

The research was conducted among SMEs from eight countries, based on a unique questionnaire designed for small enterprises. The respective countries are from Europe and Latin America, which serve as a reference category for Hungary. Also, there is a high level of 0 answers for the involved variables. The binary logistic regression methodology is suitable for filtering out some of these; nevertheless, the proportion of uncertain factors remains high as it is indicated by the explanatory power.

Originality/value

The majority of the literature is dealing with large companies in the topic of competitiveness, whereas in this data set, a deeper analysis was carried out among SMEs from eight countries, comparing their results to the Hungarian ones. The findings can be used as reference points for future studies, and the understanding of the HR cycle within SMEs.

中文翻译：

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中小企业实行薪酬激励的内部因素实证研究

目的

竞争力是一个多维结构，与许多外部和内部公司因素有关。本文旨在提供经验证据，说明应用中小企业薪酬激励作为人类系统发展与竞争力的指标/要素之间的关系。

设计/方法/方法

使用784家公司的横断面数据，分析了从全球竞争力项目中获得的有关中小企业竞争力的独特原始数据集。首先，使用描述性统计数据来显示数据集的特殊性。其次，采用前向逻辑回归来显示对薪酬激励措施应用的影响。通过使用7个公司级主因子和30个控制变量作为补偿​​系统的应用，发现25.1％的解释力。

发现

研究结果表明，如果员工拥有更丰富的默会知识以及正式和非正式的关系网络，则更有可能应用薪酬激励措施。公司内部知识水平的提高也对它产生了积极的影响。

研究局限/意义

这项研究是基于为小型企业设计的独特问卷在八个国家的中小型企业中进行的。各自的国家来自欧洲和拉丁美洲，它们是匈牙利的参考类别。此外，所涉及的变量的答案也很高，为0。二进制逻辑回归方法适合于滤除其中一些。然而，正如解释力所表明的那样，不确定因素的比例仍然很高。

创意/价值

大多数文献都与大公司竞争有关，而在此数据集中，对来自八个国家的中小型企业进行了更深入的分析，并将其结果与匈牙利的结果进行了比较。这些发现可以用作将来研究的参考，以及对中小企业内部人力资源周期的理解。