Competitive Advantage of Nations

MICHAEL E. PORTER teaches at the Harvard Business School, is an advisor to leading companies all over the world, and served on the US President's Commission on Industrial Competitiveness. He is the author of Competitive Strategy (1980) and Competitive Advantage (1985).

'America's top business guru...Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School is...consultant to the world on what makes economies hum. His status as an international authority on the right way to manage rests on a quarter of a century of mining data from the corporate coalface.' - The Times 'He's one of the two or three so-called gurus on competitiveness who've had more impact over the past 50 years than anyone else.' - Leo Murray, Director, Cranfield School of Management '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

• Preface Introduction to 1998 Edition The Need for a New Paradigm PART 1: FOUNDATIONS The Competitive Advantage of Firms in Global Industries Determinants of National Competitive Advantage The Dynamics of National Advantage PART 2: INDUSTRIES Four Studies in National Competitive Advantage National Competitive Advantage in Services PART 3: NATIONS Patterns of National Competitive Advantage: The Early Postwar Years Emerging Nations in the 1970s and 1980s Shifting National Advantage The Competitive Development of National Economies PART 4: IMPLICATIONS Company Strategy Government Policy National Agendas Epilogue Appendices