Investigating the Effect of Financial Crisis Severity on the Relationship between Competitiveness and Profitability in the Product Market

This paper aimed to examine the effect of financial crisis severity on the relationship between profitability and competitiveness of the market in the listed firms in Tehran Stock Exchange. For this purpose, competitiveness was evaluated in the market with special emphasis on the market share and the financial crisis severity as a continuous variable of the financial crisis and economic instability in the country with special emphasis on the inflation rate. The study sample consisted of 137 firms from 2013-2017. For hypothesis testing, regression model was used. Results showed that the effect of profitability and the financial crisis severity on the firms' competitiveness is significant and negative. Thus at 0.95% confidence level, financial crisis severity affects the relationship of firm profitability and its competitiveness in the market significantly.