Abstract
The UK has seen its economic performance improve significantly over recent years. But despite this positive trend, there remains a productivity gap towards the US and the leading continental European countries. This report provides a broad assessment of UK competitiveness to analyze the root causes for this gap. It dismisses the claim that weak management might be the culprit for the lower level of R&D and productivity in UK companies. Instead, it points towards the need to move competitiveness upgrading to a new level, thus providing an environment where companies will face conditions in which they can and need to move towards more knowledge-based modes of competing. The UK has been successful as a very open, highly competitive economy where barriers to rivalry have been removed and companies excelled in making the most from existing assets. It now needs to move to a model where investments in the business environment enable companies to also build new skills and assets. This requires changes in government policy as well as in company strategies.
Keywords: Competition;
Economics;
Performance Productivity;
Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques;
Research and Development;
Competency and Skills;
Investment;
Assets;
Corporate Strategy;
Policy;
Management;
Knowledge Use and Leverage;
United Kingdom;
United States;