Kinds and Causes of the Competitiveness Gap

The article deals with the issue of company uncompetitiveness, i.e. competitiveness gap. It specifies its kinds and analyses the main reasons for its occurrence. Competitiveness gap is an effect of measuring the distance separating a company from a given benchmark selected either according to objective criteria or biased in any wi The result of this measurement provides a basis for assessment of the distance from a given benchmark and of the threat posed by this distance to the existence and/or development of the organisation subject to comparisons. Kinds of competitiveness gap have been distinguished according to the benchmark’s nature, the level of objectivity in assessment of the company gap and the level of threat posed by the identified gap to the survival and development of organisation. An identification of the reasons for lack of competitiveness (a competitiveness gap) is a necessary (but obviously insufficient) condition for creating of competitive advantage of an enterprise. Most of these reasons are being looked for inside companies, within their potential or strategy, which is the consequence of adopting a processive perspective of competition, being characteristic of the resource approach in the company theory