On indexes and subject matter of “global competitiveness”

The aim of the research is to analyze the subject matter of a country’s competitiveness and to characterize statistical indexes of competitiveness known in the international practice from the perspective of a more elaborated theory of market competition. This aim follows from the identified problems. First, there are no generally accepted interpretation and joint understanding of competition and competitiveness at country level. Even the international organizations giving estimations of global competitiveness disagree on definitions of competitiveness. Secondly, there is no relation to the theory of market competition in the available source materials on competitiveness of the country without original methodology. Thirdly, well-known statistical indexes of global competitiveness do not have enough theoretical justification and differ in sets of factors. All this highlights the incompleteness of the methodology and methodological support of studying competitiveness at country level.

Materials and methods. The research is based on the methodology of statistics, economic theory and marketing. The authors followed the basic principle of statistical methodology – requirement of continuous combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, when the research begins and ends with qualitative analysis. A most important section of statistical methodology is widely used – construction of statistical indexes. In the course of the analysis, a method of statistical classifications is applied. A significant role in the present research is given to the method of generalizing and analogue method, realizing that related terms should mean similar and almost similar contents. Modeling of competition and competitiveness is widely used in the present research, which made it possible to develop a logical model of competition following from the competition theory.

Results. Based on the definitions’ survey the analysis of the subject matter of global competitiveness and the methodological support development for studying competitiveness in the article presents the following results: two approaches to understanding competitiveness at country level were formulated – market and factor ones; extensive analysis of the factor approach to national competitiveness was given; the theory of market competition gained traction and a logical model of market competition was suggested; notions of the object and subject of choice were introduced, that are key to the characteristics of market competition; grounding for the absence of analogy between competitiveness of a product and a country was put forward; statistical indexes of global competitiveness of countries were characterized and the absence of the shared vison about what such index measures was identified; acceptable cases of analogy of the country’s competitiveness with the seller’s and buyer’s competitiveness were revealed.

Conclusion. The research showed that the category of global (national, country) competitiveness does not tally with the theory of market competition, which makes its common use difficult without concretizing the content and developing additional grounding. The groundwork on calculating national competitiveness indexes, available in literature, requires justification, but they can and should serve as the theoretical and practical basis for developing a scientifically grounded system of indicators (indexes), characterizing the economic and social spheres of the government activities, and different sides of the national economy. Conducting such a research within the framework of analyzing national competitiveness should not be considered promising. 

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