A review of global competitiveness research: Past advances and future directions

The global competitiveness (GC) literature has proven to be a developing, yet critical element in international marketing research. Broadly, GC studies have become a part of the marketing, international business, and strategic management fields. In light of this far-reaching topic and to gain a unique understanding of the dynamics across the GC domain, this study examines the intellectual structure of GC research at two distinct levels of analysis: overall GC publications and marketing and international business GC articles. This review of the literature uses cocitation data to provide insight to the field and develop a research-based model for future consideration. A total of 48 journals are included, providing 1,819 articles with 115,462 citations for examination. Applying multidimensional scaling to analyze the data, the study introduces a GC-focused model and provides possible topics for research. The proposed organizing framework includes elements of a market-based perspective (offering development, market orientation, and process emphasis), strategy implementation (firm-related advantages, strategic approach, and international focus), and performance to advance the critical nature of the marketing function in the GC literature.