ABSTRACT
Industrial competitiveness comes about neither spontaneously via a change in the macroframework nor merely via entrepreneurship at the microlevel. It is, rather, the outcome of a pattern of complex and dynamic interaction between government, firms, intermediary institutions, and the organizational capacity of a society. One factor essential here-and to this extent we are here following the neoliberal view - is a competition-oriented incentive system that compels firms to undergo learning processes and increase their efficiency. There is, however, at the same time a need for - and here we are taking up a structuralist train of thought - selective support of firms with the aim
Figure 1
of advancing from comparative advantages to competitive advantages. The OECD (1992, 243) uses the term structural to designate the competitiveness which comes about in this way. The present report prefers the term systemic competitiveness as a means of stressing the following aspects. An economy's competitiveness rests both on targeted and interrelated measures at four system levels (the meta-, macro-, micro-, and mesolevels) and on a multidimensional pattern of control and guidance consisting of competition, dialogue, and joint decision-making; this pattern involves the most important groups of actors (Figure 1, Box 1).
