ABSTRACT
THE ‘COMPETITIVENESS' ISSUE Several widely used definitions of competitiveness of firms, countries or regions, point to the ability to achieve sustainable high levels of income and employment in an ‘unprotected’ environment. For instance, the OECD (1994b) proposes as a working definition of competitiveness ‘the ability of companies, industries, regions, nations or supranational regions to generate, while being and remaining exposed to international competition, relatively high factor income and factor employment levels on a sustainable basis’; America’s Competitiveness Policy Council (1992) defined competitiveness as ‘the ability to produce goods and
services that meet the test of international markets while our citizens earn a standard of living that is both rising and sustainable in the long run’.1
