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This study aims to establish the position of the European Union (EU-28) countries in the dynamics of international trade openness linkages and the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) in correlation with the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, research and development (R&D) expenditures, innovation capability and information and communication technology (ICT) adoption.

In the panel data set, comparative analyses were applied to scatter diagrams, correlation and regression analyses and structural equation models using Eurostat and World Economic Forum (WEF) data for the EU-28 countries in the period 2008–2019.

The empirical results did not confirm the hypotheses that a positive correlation exists between GCI and trade openness indicators and between GDP per capita and GCI. The ICT adoption and innovation capability increase GCI, which affects GDP per capita.

The empirical results provide a better understanding of the importance of trade policies, particularly in terms of trade openness and trade shares of the EU-28 countries, as it could contribute to increasing the GCI of the EU-28 countries. Furthermore, the results of this study underline the importance of ICT adoption and innovation capability and the need for appropriate government policies that improve global competitiveness.

This study, through empirical analysis, demonstrates the existence of correlations between trade openness (exports as % of GDP, imports as % of GDP and export market shares as % of world trade), R&D expenditures, innovation capability, ICT adoption, GDP per capita and the GCI in the EU-28 countries. In addition, this study contributes managerial and policy-based implications on driving forces of global competitiveness.

This paper aims to identify the impact of economic integration on trade competitiveness and demonstrate its effects on trade and investment performance of member nations.

The study compiles some price indices to provide a systematic assessment of competitiveness in the BRICS region. The panel regression framework estimates the impact of integration on trade competitiveness and the external sector performance of BRICS nations.

The findings of the research highlight the prospects for strong, closer and sustained integration in BRICS and, more importantly, the contribution of competitiveness to FDI receipts and export growth.

The assessment of exports and investment experiences of BRICS nations, particularly China and India, provides further evidence in support of the logical design and strategic use of their foreign trade policies.

The economic partnership that wants to sustain this high road to global economic space needs strategic orientations to promote their partnership in other interest areas to make the cooperation more competitive in price terms.

This study aims to fundamentally focus on the comparative advantage measurement and the trend of change in the international competitiveness of five Thai economic products exporting to the People’s Republic of China during the first half of the 2010s via the analysis of the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index and market share.

The RCA index has been computed to show the comparative advantages of the product to a certain extent: whether it is cost-effective to produce that product in a certain location compared to opportunity cost of the resources in producing that product. The data set of number and value of five important export products from Thailand to China during 2010-2013 has been obtained from the Thai Ministry of Commerce and Thai-Chinese Business Information Centre.

The study reveals that of these five important economic products, cassava has the highest comparative advantage and continues to have a rapid growth trend, whilst computer equipment and components have been shown to have comparative disadvantage and the lowest comparative advantage index scores.

Measuring with various sophisticated indices may provide clearer results. Also, according to unavailability of data set, the four-year period may not be able to show the long-term trend of competitiveness. Future studies are encouraged to study in the longer-term period with numerous indices.

The research also provides policy implications and measures to develop each sector to enhance competitiveness.

This is the original attempt to use both indices to assess the competitiveness of important Thai exports to the Chinese market.

Since competitiveness is crucial in international trade, this paper contributes to the literature by interrogating the information and communication technology (ICT)-trade nexus on competitiveness in Eastern and Western European countries. Does ICT usage promote or hinder the impact of trade openness on competitiveness? This study attempts to answer two questions: (1) is the interaction of trade and ICT significant in promoting competitiveness? (2) Is the effect significantly different by European classification?

With data on 17 European countries from 2007 to 2020 and using mobile phones and fixed telephone usage as ICT indicators, the study engages the bootstrapped ordinary least squares (BOLS) and method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR) techniques to probe the discourse.

The empirical findings reveal that (1) the interaction of trade and ICT boost competitiveness; (2) the effect of mobile phone is consistent across the full, East, and West European samples; (3) the interaction effect is also significant across the conditional distribution of competitiveness and (4) mobile phones and fixed broadband usage reveal “leapfrog” effect across the quantiles. Overall, the study submits that ICT usage will enhance the impact of trade, and thus, ICT is a critical enabler of competitiveness in Europe; policy recommendations were discussed.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study examining the interaction effect of trade openness and ICT usage on competitiveness in Europe. In other words, the authors attempt to analyze how ICT usage influences trade-competitiveness dynamics. To fill the gap in the literature, the authors' use a sample of 17 European countries from 2007 to 2020. The variables of interest are the competitiveness index, trade openness, and four ICT indicators (mobile phone, fixed telephone subscriptions, fixed telephone subscriptions, and Internet users).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of export logistics components: shipment arrangements, timely delivery, customs quality, trade infrastructure, and tracking and tracing on export competitiveness of firms in the East African Community (EAC).

The study adopted the Structural Gravity Model and the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML). PPML a nonlinear estimation method was applied in STATA on a balanced panel data for the period of 2007–2018. Data were obtained from World Bank International Trade Centre (ITC), World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and World Bank development indicators.

Results show that timely delivery and tracking and tracing of exports are positive and significant predictors of export competitiveness in EAC countries. Conversely, shipment arrangements, customs quality and trade infrastructure have no influence on export competitiveness.

The results of this study show that export logistics components of shipment arrangements, customs quality and trade infrastructure do not matter at the present in improving export competitiveness in the EAC. There is a need to examine the intricate nature of the EAC economy to further this study's findings.

The EAC partner states should embrace deep integration by removing the behind the border trade barriers in addition to other trade restrictions, to create a common economic space among member states. This will further shrink the delivery time and the tracking and tracing of exports hence improving the competitiveness of EAC exports within the region and outside. Also, common and harmonized trade policies and regulations should be implemented through mutual recognition agreements where countries agree to recognize one another's conformity assessments.

This study explains the complex dynamic interactions of export logistics factors in the EAC using quantitative data and that this interaction has an effect on the export competitiveness in import-dominated countries with less harmonization in their trade policies.

Pakistan’s natural endowment of labour and land is suitable for labour-intensive agriculture and manufacturing sector. This study aims to investigate international trade competitiveness of Pakistan in 14 major industries of agriculture and manufacturing sector, accounting more than 85 per cent of total export receipts.

The competitiveness of Pakistan in selected industries of agriculture and manufacturing sectors from 2003 to 2014 is investigated using the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index, introduced by Balassa (1965) on HS data collected from the United Nations Commodity Trade database. The obtained indices in this study are then subjected to panel regression analysis to investigate the effect of domestic productivity growth and real exchange rate on international trade competitiveness of major industries.

The results show that the agriculture sector of Pakistan has higher comparative advantage in raw cotton, cereals, raw leather and fruits. The raw cotton shows the highest competitiveness of 54.46 which is followed by cereals (17.13), leather (9.83) and fruits (1.97). The RCA of the manufacturing sector shows that textile (54.85), carpets (10.72), sports goods (2.18) and beverages (1.47) have higher competitiveness. The RCA, in relatively capital-intensive industries, shows a high disadvantage. The trend analysis shows distorted competitiveness in labour-intensive, textile, carpet and footwear industries. The results of panel regression analysis show that the domestic productivity growth and real exchange rate depreciation have a significant positive impact on the international competitiveness of selected industries. The study urges Pakistan to make its macroeconomic environment investment-friendly and encourage investment in deteriorating labour-intensive industries.

Globalisation has significantly increased international competition, and Pakistan is losing its competitiveness in labour-intensive industries owing to lack of domestic value addition and development efforts. The major problem with the productivity of these industries is the lack of proper infrastructure, acute energy crisis, lack of domestic and foreign investment and overvaluation of real exchange rate. The domestic investors are shifting their capital either to other domestic sectors and/or other investment-friendly countries. Policymakers in Pakistan should address the problems of these important labour-intensive industries. The government needs to understand macroeconomic uncertainties and make investment-friendly policies to encourage domestic and foreign investment. The future studies should perform in-depth research to identify both microeconomic and macroeconomic variables responsible for deterioration in competitiveness of major labour-intensive industries in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors of Pakistan.

This study is a comprehensive examination into the nature and pattern of international competitiveness of Pakistan in 14 important industries of the agriculture and manufacturing sector which has seldom been investigated empirically. The obtained indices in this study are also subjected to panel regression analysis to explore the effect of domestic productivity growth and real exchange rate depreciation on the international competitiveness of Pakistan.

The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to the changes that have taken place in Czechia in the last 20 years in the field of foreign trade, focussing on the key milestones of 2002, 2012 and 2022. The chapter also explains the important link between the performance of foreign trade and economic growth; this link has its support in theory, and above all in empiricism. The importance of foreign trade for economic growth is key, especially from the point of view of changes in the territorial and commodity structure, which saw several important changes in the observed period 2002–2022, so we can relevantly explain the effects on the economic growth of Czechia. However, the chapter finds a connection with yet another economic category, which is competitiveness. The method of measuring and subsequent ranking of competitiveness is also of utmost importance. If the economy is to be competitive, it must have its own strategy, and this directly concerns the key instruments of pro-export policy.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze raw materials, labor, capital, demand, related industries, strategies and policies influencing international competitiveness of Chinese textile and clothing industry.

The analysis is conducted using “Diamond Model”, in which raw materials, labor, capital, demand, related industries, strategies and policies are included as explanatory variables, and the impacts of international competitiveness on market share (MS), trade competitiveness(TC) and revealed comparative advantage(RCA) are examined based on the estimated coefficients of these variables.

These factors have different effects on TC, MS and RCA. While their effects on TC and MS are similar in sign even though their degree of significance differs, their effects on RCA are opposite to TC and MS except for capital. Raw materials and capital have negative effects on TC and MS, while the other factors have positive ones. Raw materials have positive effects on RCA, but all other factors have negative ones.

The results from this study imply that it is necessary to increase investment in fixed assets of Chinese textile and clothing industry, speed up the pace of upgrading equipment, improve the level of industrialization, while strengthening the supply of textile raw materials, and lowering raw material prices, thereby reducing the cost of textile and clothing enterprises.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical research made using econometric model about the impact of the main factors of trade competitiveness in Chinese textile and clothing industry based on the “Diamond Model”.

The focus of this paper is to provide an assessment of the impact of imports from China on Indian manufacturing and capture the multifarious dimensions of India–China bilateral trade flows. By examining the comparative disadvantage imports (RCA<1), the paper critically examines their significance on India's industry output and performance and underlines factors beyond trade competitiveness.

For examining the impact of India's manufacturing imports from China on industry performance, four stages of analysis is adopted. First, the imports with RCA <1 have been identified. For these, BRCA was also computed. Second, trends in industry performance associated with high imports from China. Third, for estimating the impact of imports on industry output, augmented production function was specified and estimated with imports from China as a potential determinant. And fourth, comparison of industry performance between India and China.

The impact of imports from China on industry output is positive and significant. A 1% increase/decrease in the share of China in world imports will result in output increasing by 0.31%. The rise in imports from China seems to be on account of non-availability of necessary intermediate and capital goods domestically, thereby making these imports critical and complementary for production. This negates the threat perception of imports from China.

The paper recognizes the need for understanding the firm heterogeneity in import decisions and R&D intensity of imports. Across industries, the drivers for firms' decisions to import are “learning by importing’ and “self-selection” (Camino-Magro et al., 2020). Also, another important dimension at the firm-level analysis is the elasticity of substitution between foreign and domestic inputs. If the elasticity of substitution is low then high import barriers will lead to reduction of domestic output. These firm-level issues are important for effective policy interventions.

One, the inward looking focus of the industry which is exhibited in low export intensity will not provide the necessary impetus to propel the manufacturing sector to a higher technology frontier and translate the productivity gains to export competitiveness. Two, unless the domestic manufacturing is propelled from the current low/medium technology to high technology products, the current policy thrust on “self-reliance” cannot be realized.

Analysis is based on manufacturing imports with RCA<1 from China thereby underlining factors beyond trade competitiveness not covered by RCA methodology. Complementing the quantitative analysis with economic policy developments in China and India and contrasting the same has provided insights into the real factors determining India–China bilateral trade.

Competitiveness is one of the most misunderstood concepts of the 1990s. It has drawn substantial attention from the government and business communities during the last 25 years. Morrisson et al. (1988) noted that between 1983 and 1987, the term competitiveness appeared more than 5700 times in the titles of newspapers and magazine articles. The growth of importance and interest can also be observed from the increase in the bibliographical entries in ABI/Inform database. From 1981 to 1986, the topic “international competitiveness” increased by about 26 listings per year (a total of 159 in 6 years) and the rate increased to 45 listings per year from 1987 to 1993. Academic interest in the area has also increased and as a result, new developments contemplating conceptualization and understanding of competitiveness are taking place. However, to no one's surprise, writers from different disciplines offer a variation in perspective when describing the concept, understanding, and postulation of competitiveness.