How Countries Compete: Strategy, Structure, and Government in the Global Economy - Hardcover

Vietor, Richard H. K.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1422110354 ISBN 13: 9781422110355

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 2007

Synopsis

Business and political leaders often talk about what their respective countries must do to compete in the world economy. But what does it really mean for a country to compete, and how do they do this successfully? As the world has globalized, countries develop strategies to compete for the markets, technologies, and skills that will raise their standards of living. These government strategies can make - or break - a nation's efforts to drive and sustain growth. In How Countries Compete: Strategy, Structure and Government in the Global Economy, Richard Vietor shows how governments set direction and create the climate for a nation's economic development and profitable private enterprise. Drawing on history, economic analysis, and interviews with executives and officials around the globe, Vietor provides rich and insightful examinations of different government approaches to growth and development - leading to both success and failure. Individual chapters focus on the unique social, economic, cultural, and historical forces that shape governments' approach to economic growth. The countries discussed include: China, India, Japan, Singapore, the United States Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. Vietor challenges the widespread notion that, in market-driven economies such as the United States, a strong government can only hinder business success. A provocative account and a rich resource, How Countries Compete offers potent insights into how the business environment has evolved in crucial nations—and what its trajectory might look like in the future.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Vietor is the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, where he teaches courses on the regulation of business and the international political economy.

From the Back Cover

As countries rush to compete in an increasingly globalized arena, government strategy matters more than ever.

Countries around the world are jockeying more fiercely than ever for the markets, technologies, skills, foreign investment, and distribution channels needed to grow their economies and raise their standard of living. In our thoroughly globalized world, the specific strategies of these national governments will wither make-or break-their efforts to drive and sustain growth, reduce poverty, accommodate urbanization, and create jobs.

In How Countries Compete: Strategy, Structure, and Government in the Global Economy, Richard H. K. Vietor shows how governments both set the direction and create the climate for a nation's economic development and profitable private enterprise. Vietor points out that in today's hypercompetitive environment, government invariably provides many of the distinctive advantages that firms need to go head to head with rivals. These advantages include high tax savings and low interest rates for investment, sound property rights and good governance, a workforce, a low rate of inflation, and a rapidly expanding domestic market.

Drawing on history, economic analysis, and interviews with executives and officials around the globe, Vietor provides vivid and insightful examinations of different approaches to government strategy, leading to both success and failure. Separate chapters highlight important countries-including China, India, Japan, Singapore, and the United States, as well as Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Italy-and reveal the unique social, economic, cultural, and historical forces that determine a country's trajectory. Vietor also challenges the widespread notion that in market-driven economies, such as the United States, a strong government can only hinder business success.

A provocative account and a rich resource, How Countries Compete offers potent insights into how the business environment has evolved in crucial nations-and what its trajectory might look like in the future.

Reviews

Vietor, an academic, argues that government strategy matters in setting the direction and creating the climate for a nation's economic development and profitable private enterprise. Drawing from history, economic analysis, and extensive interviews, he examines different governments' approaches to growth and development leading to success or failure in the context of their unique social, economic, cultural, and historic influences. The author considers the current environment and suggests a future direction for China, India, Japan, Singapore, the U.S., Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. He explores at length the high growth in Asia; structural adjustments of institutions and other problems in South America, Africa and the Middle East; and deficits, debt, and stagnation in the developed world. He tells us "Riyadh and Mumbai are no longer very far from New York and Brussels, instantaneously [connected] by Internet--a single global economy with increasingly integrated markets, political problems, and social issues." Although all country-risk analysts may not agree with Vietor, he offers a valuable perspective. Mary Whaley
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Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1422110354
• ISBN 13: 9781422110355
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 305