Competitive Index of Municipalities in Bulacan, Philippines: A Framework Towards Sustainable Business Development

Abstract

The strong impact of the COVID-19 pandemic created challenges for the marginalized and vulnerable sectors.  This global phenomenon also brought many problems to enterprises. This study surveyed the business owners and managers whose business operations are registered in Bulacan.  The study hypothesizes that the four pillars of sustainable cities and municipalities’ competitive index (CMCI) which includes economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, and resilience showed significant influence on the sustainability of the businesses in Bulacan. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was utilized in analyzing the competitive index of Bulacan Municipalities. Statistical data analysis,  performed by bootstrapping of 5,000 to 10,000 samples, reveals that there exist significant relationships among the four pillars of the competitive index toward the sustainability of businesses. Among the four pillars, only government efficiency was found to have an insignificant influence on business sustainability. Implications of this study are crucial for policy making and formulating strategies for the sustainability of business firms. Furthermore, the four-year ranking competitive index of the province in the Philippines confirms the added pillar of innovation towards a model for sustainable business development. Findings of this study can be validated by other scholars involving cities and municipalities in third world countries.