Competitiveness of Turkish hidden champions

Understanding the competitive power of small and medium sized firms in emerging economies is a challenging task. This paper aims to analyze internationally successful small and medium sized firms that are so called hidden champions of emerging economies in the same way as they appear in advanced countries such as Germany and Austria. The analysis will shed some light to what makes these hidden champions so competitive in international markets. Knowing that developing country firms struggle to overcome the country-of-origin effects arising from the consumer perceptions on the country products/services, observing the successful practices might help to understand their strategies in overcoming these effects. The assessment of company practices in terms of competition is carried out by using a comprehensive model where the assessment of firm competitiveness is carried out through the outcome/performance of competition (i.e. output), assets/factors (i.e. input) and processes that turn the assets/factors into actual performance. The paper conducts a case study by concentrating in one emerging economy: Turkey. The in-depth analysis of 10 companies by using the firm competitiveness assessment model helps to identify some innovative ways of overcoming the country-of-origin effects. The paper ends with some managerial and policy implications.