The idea of competitive advantage and the ideas of Michael Porter

✍ Scribed by Nicholas O'Shaughnessy

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 109 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1086-1718
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1697(199703)6:2<73::aid-jsc253>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

Michael Porter's Competitive Advantage of

Nations (1990)

is impressively true within certain self-de®ned limits. But given the international political in¯uence of his work, such limitations deserve, and receive here, scrutiny: this is a benevolent critique that seeks to incorporate explanations of competitive advantage which Porter has neglected.

His thesis seldom transcends economics and therefore encourages the belief that problems are soluble exclusively through economic policy measures. This view under-plays the role of history, politics and culture in determining competitive advantage, so that as a result of de®ning the problem incompletely, he offers an incomplete solution.

This article, while supportive of the core of Porter's work, seeks therefore a broader canvas.

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There are important methodological limitations to his chosen approach.

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The thesis is over-deterministic in the role allotted to economics. * It neglects the role of culture, custom, history and politics. * Critics of Porter such as Krugman are reviewed. * The question of industrial policy is raised, can it ever succeed, how and in what circumstances?