Conventional explanations of diversification and multinationality both point to the existence of intangible assets as a driving force. Using a new database of leading EU firms in 100 NACE 3-digit industries, we devise a classificatory scheme which allows us to analyze multinationality and...

The attempt to define the term “competitiveness of nations” has reached the phase of decreasing returns. Fortunately, the literature seems to be converging slightly, a tendency, we hope to accelerate. We propose (1) defining competitiveness as “the ability of a country or location to...

In general, the economic performance of European countries was disappointing in the 1990s. However, country differences increased, and in some European countries economic growth matched US rates. This paper uses a set of performance indicators to carve out a group of successful European...