Competitive Advantage of Nations: With a New Introduction - Hardcover

Porter, Michael E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684841479 ISBN 13: 9780684841472

Publisher: Free Press, 1998

Synopsis

Now beyond its eleventh printing and translated into twelve languages, Michael Porter’s The Competitive Advantage of Nations has changed completely our conception of how prosperity is created and sustained in the modern global economy. Porter’s groundbreaking study of international competitiveness has shaped national policy in countries around the world. It has also transformed thinking and action in states, cities, companies, and even entire regions such as Central America.

Based on research in ten leading trading nations, The Competitive Advantage of Nations offers the first theory of competitiveness based on the causes of the productivity with which companies compete. Porter shows how traditional comparative advantages such as natural resources and pools of labor have been superseded as sources of prosperity, and how broad macroeconomic accounts of competitiveness are insufficient. The book introduces Porter’s “diamond,” a whole new way to understand the competitive position of a nation (or other locations) in global competition that is now an integral part of international business thinking. Porter's concept of “clusters,” or groups of interconnected firms, suppliers, related industries, and institutions that arise in particular locations, has become a new way for companies and governments to think about economies, assess the competitive advantage of locations, and set public policy.

Even before publication of the book, Porter’s theory had guided national reassessments in New Zealand and elsewhere. His ideas and personal involvement have shaped strategy in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Portugal, Taiwan, Costa Rica, and India, and regions such as Massachusetts, California, and the Basque country. Hundreds of cluster initiatives have flourished throughout the world. In an era of intensifying global competition, this pathbreaking book on the new wealth of nations has become the standard by which all future work must be measured.

About this title

Review:

Business Week Rich in lessons about why and how industries, regions, and nations succeed or fail.

The Economist An all-embracing view of economic change that amounts in the end to a powerful analytic framework. Porter has done for international capitalism what Marx did for the class struggle....A real achievement.

Administrative Science Quarterly Should have a profound and far-reaching impact on academic course work, managers' perceptions, and public policy.

Business in a Contemporary World The Competitive Advantage of Nations is destined to become a classic in its field.

Journal of Development Economics The first serious attempt to develop a really original grand theory of national economic development processes since the early years of Postwar development economics, and one of the most original ways of thinking about development policy in years.

Publishers Weekly This massive, impressive, salient tome is structured so that business executives, economists, policy-makers and ordinary readers can turn to the sections most relevant to their needs.

From the Publisher:

Reviews
Reviews:

'Porter (is) the world's foremost authority on corporate strategy.' - South China Morning Post

'Michael Porter is a guru. In the overcrowded parking lot of management gurus he is the flaming red one with a turbo charged, 32 valve, three litre engine, a GURU1 number plate and a CD changer in the boot. Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, has not only taught generations of ambitious executives how to run business better, but his CV reads more like Henry Kissinger's diary than the life of an average academic.' - Neil Bennett, Sunday Telegraph

'Porter is the undisputed global authority on strategic management thinking and national competitive advantage.' - Carol Kennedy, Business Highlights, Booksellers' Buyers Guide 2000

'Michael Porter reaches his conclusions the old fashioned way: he earns them through solid research. The lessons of the book are sharp and deep.' - Robert M. Solow, Nobel Laureate in Economics, MIT

'The Competitive Advantage of Nations creates a new sphere in economics: an innovative socio-economic approach that will bring fresh insights to economists and industrialists.' - Shinji Fukukawa, Former Vice Minister, MITI, Japan

'A quite extraordinary achievement. The book's influence is certain to be widespread and profound. ' - Sir Christopher Hogg, Non-executive Chairman, Reuteres Holdsins plc, Chairman, Courtaulds plc

' Michael Porter clearly expresses the virtues of competition, innovation and risk-taking. His book offers insightful diagnoses of chronic economic ills and useful guidelines to a more prosperous economy. It should be read by policymakers and citizens alike.' - Senator Bill Bradley

'Michael E. Porter is an undoubted business guru...This book is, by any standards, a tour de force.' - The Good Book Guide

'Porter's prose is clear, his argument is engaging, and his case thoroughly supported by detailed evidence ... as a framework for understanding, and for effective industrial and political decision-making, it remains essential.' - Euroabstracts

'A classic text.' - Dr Ian Smith, Cardiff Business School

'Professor Michael Porter (is) one of the world's most influential authorities on corporate strategy... (the book) stands to become a standard text for the analysis of relative national economic performance.' - Independent on Sunday

'Michael Porter builds up an all-embracing view of economic change that amounts in the end to a powerful analytical framework...he has done for international capitalism what Marx did for the class struggle.' - The Economist

'The Competitive Advantage of Nations pulls off the seemingly impossible. It adds a fresh dimension to the international competitiveness debate, which has been going on since Adam Smith and David Ricardo.' - The Times

'This book can be envisaged to have a major impact on the thinking of management and government policy-makers.' - International Journal of Information Research Management

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0684841479
• ISBN 13: 9780684841472
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 896