The Use of Foreign Labor Force as a Competitiveness Factor of Industrial Enterprises: a Comparative Analysis of Russia and the EU Countries

This study is an attempt to determine the appropriateness of using foreign labor force in Russian manufacturing enterprises. The purpose of the study is to identify the direction and extent of the influence of labor force on three generalized characteristics of enterprise activity - innovation activity, employee salaries, economic indicators (revenue growth rate, return on assets, productivity) - and to conduct comparative analysis with European manufacturing enterprises. The research hypotheses are tested on the combined database of Russian enterprises (“RUFIGE”) and the enterprises of seven European countries (“EFIGE”): Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom. The main contribution of the study is the conducting a tripartite analysis of Russian enterprises by considering three performance indicators based on the methods described in the foreign studies and comparing of the results for Russian and European enterprises. As a result of the study, the general conclusion is that there is a negative impact of the foreign labor force on Russian manufacturing enterprises, what is also relevant for the enterprises of the seven European countries under consideration. Foreign labor force has especially significant and negative influence on the innovation activity, what suppresses the growth of the company's productivity.