COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND HUMAN-RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN SMES IN A TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY

The article is based on data of the study of 151 small companies in Sl ovenia by J. Prasnikar and others. The study is the first investigatio n of small firms in Slovenia with a sufficiently large number of cases to enable conclusions about the ways in which SMEs are managing to co pe with new opportunities and problems. The aim of this article is to investigate a link between competitive advantage and human resource ma nagement in SMEs in a transitional economy. Results indicate that a li nk indeed exists in that human resource efforts in SMEs to a certain d egree contribute to the competitive advantage of companies.