Management of Energy Costs for Sme’s, Evidence From Kosova Economic Environment

Abstract

This paper deals with issues of strategic management, particularly strategic planning of energy costs and their effect on the overall performance of businesses. It is based on empirical results of the original research survey Enterprise Surveys data for Republic of Kosova,. performed via questionnaire surveys by the World Bank in three rounds during years 2005, 2009 and 2013. The analyses presented in the paper were conducted on the third round sample of  organizations operating mostly in the SME sector in the Republic of Kosova.Among typical obstacles to the economic environment we found also the energy problem, specifically the power outages that increase further the costs of power supply for SME’s.  These phenomena not only create a state of turmoil and turbulence in the competitive environment and generate changes in market conditions, but require changes and development in organizations. In these circumstances organizations are forced to adapt costly solutions, like generators or other tools to guarantee  the customer satisfaction.Therefore to achieve any competitive advantage, organizations must take in consideration the current economic environment.The interdependence between the level of energy costs and enterprise performance criteria is examined with the use of some hypotheses. The results are commented and discussed.

Keywords: energy costs, business strategy, performance criteria, questionnaire research,