Interaction of leading and supporting factors for the SME competitiveness

The main goal of this research was to investigate the SMEs competitiveness in terms of leading and supporting factors, and to compare the influence of these factors on SMEs performance. The study focused on four leading and four supportive factors. For each of these factors the respective indexes were constructed and calculated on the basis of 300 Bulgarian SMEs. Through the econometric modelling the research addressed the interaction between two groups of factors. The main findings related to the factors ordering - with some of leading factors stepping back and supporting ones becoming more important in the times of crisis.