FROM NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS TO BLOC AND GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

This paper has two objectives. First, it attempts to prove that the level of competitiveness can be measured for any entities with different domains—product, firm, industry, nation, bloc, or the globe. It shows that sources of competitiveness are identical for all the entities. The distinguishing feature among these entities is the roles they play in determining the respective levels of competitiveness. Second, the paper suggests that the genuine purpose in our analysis of competitiveness should be to find ways to increase the level of global competitiveness. To identify sources of competitiveness, I propose the nine‐factor model, which encompasses both physical and human factors. These nine factors are classified into four categories —subject, environment, resources, and mechanism —by the roles they play to increase the level of competitiveness. The “integrated model of competitiveness” shows that different classifications of the nine factors take place for different entities. Specifically, as the domain of the entity increases, the scope of resources that subjects can utilize expands and the scope of the uncontrollable environment shrinks. Global competitiveness is not cross‐sectional in nature. I suggest ways to increase the future level of global competitiveness for the better welfare of all humankind.