Competitive Advantage of Nations: 25 Years After

Special Issue of the Competitiveness Review

“The Competitive Advantage of Nations: 25 Years After”

Christian Ketels (editor)

In 1990 Michael Porter published “The Competitive Advantage of Nations”, proposing a comprehensive framework to understand the competitiveness of locations.  The book triggered a rich academic debate; up to now, Google Scholar registers more than 35,000 citations. Numerous countries, regions, and clusters have launched efforts to upgrade their competitiveness, motivated by Porter’s work.

In this special issue we aim to collect two groups of papers, reflecting on the impact that the book had on theory and practice. First, we want to explore how the thinking on competitiveness has evolved over time. In the academic community there has been an on-going debate about the nature of the competitiveness concept, and the policy implications it might have. Twenty-five years after the Competitive Advantage of Nation was published, it is time to see where we have ended up so far. Second, we want to learn from a number of specific country and region cases in which Porter’s framework provided the foundation for specific diagnostics and policy action. Practitioners have been looking at Porter’s competitiveness framework as a way to organize their economic policies.  With the experience of these efforts over the last twenty-five years it is time to take stock and draw conclusions for policy practice going forward.

We are inviting a number of authors from academia and the policy community to this special issue. We also encourage submission from other authors, which will then go through the normal review process of the journal.

Submissions:

1. Papers will be subject to double-blind peer review, according to author guidelines available at: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/cr.htm
2. Submissions to Competitiveness Review are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/comprev (please select the correct special issue from the drop-down menu)

Submission deadline : May 15th 2015

About the Editor:

Christian Ketels is a member of the Harvard Business School faculty where he serves as the Principal Associate of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. He is the President of the TCI Network, the leading global network of practitioners in competitiveness, clusters and innovation. Together with Prof. Philippe Gugler, University of Fribourg and Chairman of the European International Business Academy (EIBA, he is the editor of the Competitiveness Review. Email: cketels@hbs.edu.