INTRODUCTION

I. Business Competitiveness

Businesses have emerged hundreds of years ago. It has been part of the society.

Businesses are able to improve the lives of people and create a better standard of

living. The business sector has become indispensable in the society as it provides the

needs and the wants of individuals. Throughout the years, competition in the sector

began to grow. The rapid growth of competition in the industry has made it necessary

for firms to stay in the competition or to have competitive advantages over its

competitors.

Business Competitiveness is the ability of a firm to perform better than other firms in

the same industry. A company should be able to compete in the industry for it to be

successful and sustainable. A competitive company should be flexible in order to adapt

and conform to the continuous changing conditions and atmosphere the business

sector has.

In the case of business competitiveness, we can define it as the ability of organizations

to produce goods or services with a favorable quality-price ratio that guarantees good

profitability while achieving customer preference over other competitors.

Competitiveness ensures that the company is sustainable and durable.

Competitiveness can be built and measured by taking into account different aspects.

This means that achieving it requires the company to create a strategy that involves

the constant optimization of different factors such as human capital, innovation

capacity, and relationship with customers, and organizations. [ CITATION Gen19 \l 13321 ]
A competitive company must be able to have human resource that can perform its jobs

at the best possible and most efficient way. One should also be innovative. Innovation

is one of the most important keys to be competitive. It is one of the competitive

advantages that a company can have. Through innovation, a firm can produce unique

and better products and services. Aside from these, being innovative and productive

will drive economic development and better standard of living. Innovations drive

monetary or economic growth that can result to better products and services and in

turn, will result to higher efficiency and progress. A company must also have a good

relationship with its customer in order to have a good reputation and to have the

advantage of a positive word of mouth.

II. Household in the Philippines

A household is defined as "one person or a group of people who have the

accommodation as their only or main residence and for a group, either share at least

one meal a day or share the living accommodation, that is, a living room or sitting

room". In simplest meaning all those people living under one roof are considered a

household. Households do two fundamental things vital to the economy; Demand

goods and services from product markets and; Supply labor, capital, land, and

entrepreneurial ability to resource markets. Economists think of each household acting

as a single decision-maker.

In 2015 census of population, the household population comprised 99.6 percent of the

total Philippine population, while the remaining 0.4 percent is comprised of the

institutional population or those residing in collective or institutional living quarters such

as hospitals, orphanages, and military camps; and Filipinos in Philippine embassies,

consulates, and missions abroad. The household population of the Philippines reached

100.57 million persons in 2015. This is 8.48 million higher than the 92.10 million

household population reported in 2010, and 24.24 million more than the 76.33 million

household population posted in 2000.

The System of National Accounts or SNA defines “households” as institutional units

consisting of one individual or a group of individuals. All physical persons in an

economy must belong to one and only one household. A multi-person household is

defined as a group of persons who share the same living accommodation, who pool

some, or all, of their income and wealth, and who consume certain types of goods and

services collectively, mainly housing and food. In general each member of a household

should have some claim on the collective resources of the household. At least some

decisions affecting consumption or other economic activities must be taken for the

household as a whole. Unincorporated enterprises owned by households are treated

as an integral part of the household to which they belong except under specific

conditions

III. Relations of number of household and business competitive index of the

provinces of the Philippines

Understanding the factors that influence the competitiveness of businesses among the

provinces in the Philippines is an important concern, it is because it effects towards the

said competitiveness index. In such factors, they are the number of provinces in the
Philippines because this study will depend on the household number per province and

also the policies enclosed regarding in the business.

Competitiveness indicators have for some time now been used to measure the

country’s business landscape. Measured competitiveness affects the country’s

capacity to attract trade and investments. The economic situation remains a challenge

for the Philippines, which is seen as falling short of its true potential for attracting both

domestic and foreign investment, given its human, natural, and capital endowments.

This study aims to further deepen the understanding regarding how household in most

provinces affect the business status.