Problem of assessing enterprise’s possibilities to compete and its possible solution

As a research object competitiveness is characterized by some specific features which cause a variety of research results and impede the assessment of competitiveness. For example, the assessment according to the reached results shows how competitive the enterprise was in the past and why it had taken such competitive position in the market. Assessment according to the available resources and capabilities indicates whether the firm is competitive at the moment. Such a view expresses only the potential of competitiveness and does not show the enterprise’s possibilities to compete in the future. The mentioned problem is revealed and the need as well as the structure of subsidiary in its purpose element of the used model of competitiveness (proposed by M. J. Stankiewicz 2005) – competitive ability as the assessment instrument of the enterprise’s competitiveness – is substantiated in this article. The performed analysis allows us to maintain that the enterprise’s ability to compete can be assessed by evaluating the adequacy level of the enterprise’s activity parameters forming this ability into the ideal case, unlike the competitive advantage that can be determined only by comparing all enterprises in the market or knowing their average competitiveness