Analysis of factors of cross-border cooperation in order to increase the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in Saint-Petersburg

Border regions are considered to be potential "growth points" that have opportunities and conditions for intensive development, including the economic competitiveness of both border regions and their subjects. This point determines the relevance of the topic. The given work is devoted to identifying factors and other key aspects for realizing the cross-border cooperation of SMEs. A survey of SMEs in St. Petersburg was conducted to determine their experience of cooperation and the importance of factors and other key aspects of international cooperation. For this purpose, the following research methods and tools were considered: literature reviews, data collection, questionnaires, data analysis. Through the analysis of the collected data, factors, problems, and barriers have been identified for establishing cross-border cooperation. This article also discusses the impact of the international cooperation of small and medium-sized enterprises on the level of competitiveness of these enterprises. The assessment of competitiveness was carried out based on the dynamic approach and the results of calculations were presented. The comparative analysis of the competitiveness of enterprises to prove the hypothesis was conducted on the example of 23 SMEs in Saint Petersburg for the period 2016--2018. The research confirms the hypothesis about the positive relationship between the international cooperation of enterprises with the level of their competitiveness. In order to identify the impact of sources of competitiveness, a factor analysis of the multiplicative model was conducted. The level of competitiveness is negatively affected by the return on equity index, which is less than one for both groups. For a group of companies with a positive experience, the reason for the decline in the level of competitiveness throughout the period was the decline in the financial stability index. For a group with a negative experience of cooperation, a regular negative factor was a decrease in return on equity index.