This publication discusses the issue of small industrial business companies' competitiveness in the context of managing competitiveness for the purpose of achieving a specific market position and gaining competitive advantage. The objective of this work is to analyse and present the specificity of competitive activities in small business entities and competitiveness management and to identify changes in their competitive position in the different long-term periods analysed. The theoretical part of the work presents a literature review of small business companies' competitiveness and sustainable management of competitiveness. In this part of the article, the authors present the definition of competitiveness, competitiveness management, and sustainable competitiveness management and present their own model approach based on mind mapping. The study used statistical methods such as taxonomy structure, the Kruskal–Wallis test for independent analyses, and Friedman's one-way analysis of variance for dependent data. The empirical part presents the authors' research into the competitive position achieved and declared by companies classified as manufacturers of furniture. The research was divided into two parts: part one refers to qualitative research based on 10 micro businesses; part two presents quantitative research among SMEs. In total, the study covers 304 enterprises, divided into groups by size: 117 micro entities, 100 small entities, and 87 medium companies. The analysed period takes into account the long term, within the years 2008–2020. The main findings of the empirical research are as follows: the competitiveness of small business companies is determined by their qualitative features as well as by the adopted management system, and the sources of competitive advantage in the particular groups of SMEs are not highly diversified by size, with a larger number of medium entities attributing their competitive advantage to qualitative rather than quantitative measures. The achievement of this research objective has allowed for the authors to develop a model of sustainable development of competitiveness in small business companies and present the results of empirical studies. The conducted research is a pioneering contribution to the assessment of the competitive position of the surveyed enterprises and factors influencing their competitiveness in Poland in periods with different external conditions, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking into account the nature of empirical research undertaken in the article, it is necessary to point out their pioneering character and the related contribution to the development of science in the field of sustainable management and competitiveness of enterprises from the SME sector, and it is also necessary to fill the existing research gap in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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