Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the competitiveness obstacles that European businesses face, which, if not addressed, limit the potential of the EU economy, particularly in terms of the Lisbon goals. Adopting a broadly defined compliance‐centred approach, the paper seeks to...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer clarity on a central concept introduced in Porter’s The Competitive Advantage of Nations , i.e. the cluster. The authors situate the concept introduced by Porter (1990) relative to two of its antecedents, the industrial district and industrial...

Purpose: Effective policy to support business ecosystems should build on evidence-based analyses of firm-level activities and outcomes. This paper aims to contribute to this requirement and makes three contributions. The first contribution is to extend the application of the network capital...

Purpose: Whereas in developed countries, sustainability primarily focuses on environmental topics, in developing countries the issues of poverty, development and equity are equally, if not more, important. The purpose of this paper is to apply measures of social and environmental sustainability...

New evidence is presented on the degree of aggregate and sectoral labour productivity convergence among 11 EU countries between 1970 and 1990. As with studies for other groups of countries, it is found that there is a greater degree of aggregate than sectoral convergence. Aggregate productivity...

Motivated by the important role of trade in driving and reflecting economic transformation, we focus on the export structure of two small export-oriented economies, Ireland and Finland 2000–2009, from the perspective of the sophistication of both economies’ exports, i.e., the extent to which...

The secular transformation in Irish sectoral employment shares, which has been stimulated by the change in focus of both Irish industrial and trade policies, mirrors the significant changes that have occurred in international structures of production. Estimates the contribution of changes in...

The secular transformation in Irish sectoral employment shares, which has been stimulated by the change in focus of both Irish industrial and trade policies, mirrors the significant changes that have occurred in international structures of production. Estimates the contribution of changes in...

New evidence is presented on the degree of aggregate and sectoral labour productivity convergence among 11 EU countries between 1970 and 1990. As with studies for other groups of countries, it is found that there is a greater degree of aggregate than sectoral convergence. Aggregate productivity...