- The globalization of industry is irreversible, driven by trade and investment
liberalization, accelerated technological progress, new organizational and
management systems, and new global rules and regulations.
- Technical progress has integrated the world economy much more closely then
ever before, linking product, service, financial and information markets.
- Knowledge, information, technology, capital and skilled labor are becoming
increasingly available, creating opportunities for latecomer firms, industries
and countries to draw upon an existing stock of knowledge and advanced technologies
avoiding lengthy and costly learning processes.
- The global setting has facilitated the creation and spread of integrated
global production systems and networks, governed by transnational corporations—making
it even more difficult to isolate countries and enterprises from world market
forces.
- Transnational corporations increasingly separate production processes
into small pieces and locate them around the world to take advantage of differences
in production factor costs, managing those sites as a coherent whole for their
competitive advantage.
- Competition is constantly taking new forms. Low costs are important—but
so are innovation, flexibility, reliability, service and quality. New products,
processes and services are becoming the main drivers of competitiveness.
- Enterprises are increasingly exposed to global competition with an immediacy
and intensity rarely seen before. The needs of competitiveness stretch well
beyond the front-line enterprises that face international rivals, encompassing
other enterprises, organizations and institutions and governance—and
this applies to developing and industrialized countries alike.
- How well countries and enterprises cope with the challenges of present
global setting depends on their adaptive capabilities to upgrade technology
to increase competitiveness. Technological upgrading can be achieved by pursuing
a strategy of linking with domestic or foreign partners to effectively leverage
new technology and knowledge for industrial development—the process is
in many ways similar to real innovation in industrialized countries.
- Using new technologies efficiently, to competitive standards, requires
learning new skills, organizational techniques and marketing and supply chain
methods.
- The content, risk, cost and duration of the innovation and learning effort
vary by technology, industry, enterprise and country context.
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