The Competitiveness of Nations 2021: Theory and Practice

The existing reports on national competitiveness and rankings such as IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook and WEF Global Competitiveness Report have attracted criticism for lacking rigor in their analytical models and methodologies. To address the problems and limitations of these models, this book presents a new model (the double diamond-based 9-factor model) which is an extension of Michael Porter’s single diamond. In addition, with a robust set of methodologies, this new approach offers a number of key policy implications for countries around the world that wish to enhance their national competitiveness.

The analytical tools used in this book can be further utilized for other units of analysis such as industries and firms. As this book provides a series of sophisticated methodologies and specific guidelines for enhancing national competitiveness, both academics and practitioners can derive useful implications from this research. Alongside the theoretical frameworks and methodologies for national competitiveness presented in this book, timely topics are included such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the US-China trade war. This book also includes various country-specific real-world cases that are assessed from the perspective of both developed and developing countries.