The Competitive Advantage of Nations and Companies National competitiveness is a polysemantic term that determines mainly: 1) The country s ability

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1 The Competitive Advantage of Nations and Companies National competitiveness is a polysemantic term that determines mainly: 1) The country s ability to achieve high economic growth rates that would be sustainable in the medium term; 2) The level of productivity of factors of production in a given country; 3) The ability of companies in a given country to complete successfully in certain international markets. The basis of this course is Michael Porter s The Competitive Advantage of Nations, where he underlines the meaning of competitiveness on all the levels (both national level and the level of companies). Despite the criticism of Porter s theory (there are doubts whether government sector should be competitive or not), from it can be derived specific directions of government s activities and elaboration of its policy. In The Competitive Advantage of Nations Porter identifies 4 main clusters, where the competitive advantages could be obtained: Cost Leadership, Cost Focus, Differentiation, Focus Differentiation. These fields are determined by the targets, costs and differentiation of a specific economic agent. As this agent may act a nation, a company or even an individual. So, these 4 main fields exist in every environment, as well as the ability to obtain a certain level of competitiveness, or to obtain certain relevance. There are also 4 stages of competitiveness: 1) The stage, driven by factors 2) Stage, driven by investment 3) The stage driven by innovation 4) Stage of wealth A nation can pass all these stages or settle at the one specific stage. Professor Porter links the success of a specific state with its position on these stages. As well as the field, this approach can be applied to specific industries and even certain companies.

2 Despite the complexity of the research, there are some gaps, that are widely criticized by contemporary scientists. Course evaluation: Seminar participation 35% Group project 20% Test 20% Final Exam 25% Course outline: 1) Seminar 1: Introduction and Overview: What is the competitiveness? What determines competitiveness? The new paradigm created by Porter. Mitschke, A. (2008). The international competitiveness of nations. The Influence of National Competition Policy on the International Competitiveness of Nations: A Contribution to the Debate on International Competition Rules, Krugman, P. R. (1996). Making sense of the competitiveness debate. Oxford review of economic policy, 12(3), ) Seminar 2: The competitive advantage of firms in global industries: Competitive strategies. International competitiveness. The role of local circumstances in competitive success. Porter, M. E. (Ed.). (1986). Competition in global industries. Harvard Business Press.

3 Kogut, B. (1985). Designing global strategies: Comparative and competitive valueadded chains. Sloan management review, 26(4), Collis, D. J. (1991). A resource based analysis of global competition: the case of the bearings industry. Strategic management journal, 12(S1), Porter, M. E. (2000). Location, competition, and economic development: Local clusters in a global economy. Economic development quarterly, 14(1), ) Seminar 3: Determinants of National Competitive Advantage and its dynamics: Determinants of national advantage. The role of government. The determinants as a system. The Diamond of national advantage in Perspective. Porter, M. E., & Hutchinson, J. (1990). Determinants of national competitive advantage. Srivastava, S. C., & Teo, T. S. (2008). The relationship between e-government and national competitiveness: The moderating influence of environmental factors. Communications of the association for information systems, 23(1), 5. Delgado, M., Ketels, C., Porter, M. E., & Stern, S. (2012). The determinants of national competitiveness (No. w18249). National Bureau of Economic Research. 4) Seminar 4: Industries and National Competitiveness. Lodge, G. C., & Vogel, E. F. (Eds.). (1987). Ideology and national competitiveness: An analysis of nine countries. Harvard Business Press. Crouch, G. I., & Ritchie, J. B. (1999). Tourism, competitiveness, and societal prosperity. Journal of business research, 44(3), Scott, B. R., & Lodge, G. C. (1985). US competitiveness in the world economy. Thunderbird International Business Review, 27(1),

4 Niosi, J. (1991). Technology and National competitiveness. McGill-Queen's Press- MQUP. Griffiths, A., & Zammuto, R. F. (2005). Institutional governance systems and variations in national competitive advantage: An integrative framework. Academy of Management Review, 30(4), ) Seminar 5: Nations and national competitive advantage: The early postwar winners. American postwar dominance. Emerging nations in the 1970s and 1980s. Shifting national advantage. The competitive development of national economies. Porter, M. E. (1996). Competitive advantage, agglomeration economies, and regional policy. International regional science review, 19(1-2), Nebenzahl, I. D. (2001). National image and competitive advantage. IV. Admi. Malecki, E. J. (1997). Technology and economic development: the dynamics of local, regional, and national change. Narula, R. (1993). Technology, international business and Porter's" Diamond": Synthesizing a dynamic competitive development model. MIR: Management International Review, ) Seminar 6: Company strategies: Competitive advantage in international competition. Improvement of national competitive environment. The role of leadership. Snieška, V., & Drakšaitė, A. (2007). The role of knowledge process outsourcing in creating national competitiveness in global economy. Engineering Economics, 53(3).

5 Porter, M. E., & Van der Linde, C. (1995). Toward a new conception of the environment-competitiveness relationship. The journal of economic perspectives, 9(4), ) Seminar 7: Government Policy: government policy and national advantage. The role of government. Porter, M. E. (1996). Competitive advantage, agglomeration economies, and regional policy. International regional science review, 19(1-2), Krugman, P. R. (Ed.). (1986). Strategic trade policy and the new international economics. mit Press. 8) Seminar 8: National agendas: Specific cases of different countries. 9) Seminar 9: Geographic Influences on competitiveness: Regions and competitiveness. Specializations of different areas. The evolution of regional economies. Competitiveness and integration with neighboring countries. Dunning, J. H. (1996). The geographical sources of the competitiveness of firms: some results of a new survey. University of Reading, Department of Economics. Maskell, P., & Malmberg, A. (1999). Localised learning and industrial competitiveness. Cambridge journal of economics, 23(2), ) Seminar 10: Criticism of Porter s theory.

6 Grant, R. M. (1991). Porter's competitive advantage of nations : an assessment. Strategic management journal, 12(7), Davies, H., & Ellis, P. (2000). Porter s competitive advantage of nations: time for the final judgement?. Journal of management studies, 37(8), Smit, A. J. (2010). The competitive advantage of nations: is Porter s Diamond Framework a new theory that explains the international competitiveness of countries?. Southern African Business Review, 14(1). Tayeb, M. (1995). The competitive advantage of nations: the role of HRM and its socio-cultural context. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 6(3),