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The Looming Challenge to U.S. Competitiveness
This article will frame the HBS project on U.S. competitiveness by defining "competitiveness," assessing the state of U.S. competitiveness, and pinpointing dynamics that threaten America's competitiveness.
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Democracy in America: Constructive Competition or Politics As War?
In thinking about the competitiveness of a nation, analysts commonly focus on economic factors, such as exports, unit labor costs, and fiscal policy, among others. “Politics” is not typically high on the list, if it appears at all.
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The Entrepreneurial Imperative
Entrepreneurial action—the pursuit of opportunity beyond the tangible resources currently controlled – has been essential to driving U.S. productivity and job growth.
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How Can Trade Policy Help America Compete?
The United States economy has to grow faster than its long-run potential to absorb its high levels of unemployment.
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The Future of Financial Services
From 1980 to 2006, the U.S. financial industry went through a period of unprecedented growth, driven by rising asset values, changes in financial technology, and globalization.
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Macroeconomic Policy and U.S. Competitiveness
Across the political spectrum, there is consensus that the United States faces challenges to its competitiveness. Current U.S. fiscal policy is, unfortunately, part of the problem rather than the solution.
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Choosing the United States
Over the last four decades companies have dispersed more and more of their activities across the globe. Our data and analysis suggest that the U.S. is losing out on location decisions at an alarming rate, even for high value adding activities such as R&D that it should be able to attract.
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Resolving America's Human Capital Paradox: a Proposal for a Jobs Compact
It’s generally understood that the United States can’t be competitive—and won’t be able to support high, and rising, living standards—without a well trained, well paid, and continuously improving workforce that can compete with the best that other countries have to offer.
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The Giant Fib (Financial Incentive Bubble)
The last three decades have seen American capitalism transformed by a simple idea—that the evaluation and compensation of managers and investors should be outsourced to financial markets.
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Who Needs Manufacturing?
Manufacturing matters to a nation’s economic prosperity, not because it is an important source of jobs (it currently represents only about 10% of US employment) but because manufacturing competence is often an integral part of innovation.
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Enriching the Ecosystem: Forging the Missing Links Between Innovation, Enterprises, and Jobs
Innovation, the classic basis for U.S. success in world markets, rests on foundational institutions, such as research centers, incubators for entrepreneurs, and skills training vehicles, that provide fertile soil in which to seed, grow, and renew enterprises.
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Environmental Sustainability and Competitiveness: Policy Imperative and Corporate Opportunity
Environmental sustainability has emerged as an important element of corporate strategy and marketplace success.
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Preparing the Next Generation of Americans for a Stronger Economy
In 2008, Stanford economist Eric Hanushek developed a new way to examine the link between a country’s GDP and the academic test scores of its children. He found that if one country’s scores were only half a standard deviation higher than another’s in 1960, in every subsequent year through 2000, its GDP grew a full percentage point faster.
Dean Nitin Nohria on the U.S. Competitiveness Project
What can Americans — especially those in the business world — do to increase the ability of U.S. firms to compete successfully in the global economy while raising American living standards?
This is one of the most important and challenging questions facing society today. The Harvard Business School's U.S. Competitiveness Project, led by Professors Michael Porter and Jan Rivkin, will engage some of the world's greatest thinkers to assess U.S. competitiveness and develop actionable recommendations to change America's trajectory.
The opportunity to change the trajectory of competitiveness in America
In an interview with Justin Fox of Harvard Business Review, Professors Michael Porter and Jan Rivkin define U.S. competitiveness, explain why it’s crucial to look at drivers of competitiveness holistically, and call upon all Americans, especially those in business, to meet the competitiveness challenge by turning strategy into action.
“While government policy sets the stage, it is companies that ultimately win or lose in the marketplace,” says Professor Porter.
Media
HBR Special Report: Restoring US Competitiveness
01 Mar 2012 - Harvard Business Review
What is the proper role of the financial sector, how should we improve our educational system, and do most outsourcing decisions actually make financial sense? This special report, conducted in collaboration with Harvard Business School, explores these issues and more.
In Defense of Responsible Offshoring and Outsourcing
22 Feb 2012 - HBR Blogs
The imperatives of offshore facilities and employees are — and will remain — central to American companies' international competitiveness.
Obama to propose lowering corporate tax rate to 28 percent
22 Feb 2012 - Washington Post
Obama will target oil and gas companies for tax hikes while promising special breaks for manufacturing companies.
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What is one thing businesses could do to improve the nation's trajectory?
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