Linking National Competitiveness to Innovation at a Global Level in the Period 2019-2022

Abstract

The rapid expansion of the globalization process worldwide has continuously shaped the post-Cold War world. It is said that the last three decades represented a period of global economic integration through financial, trade and informational channels. One of the effects of the vast spread of the globalization process was the emergence and expansion of a new type of competition, entitled hypercompetition. Characterised by intense and ceaseless change, innovative competitors and unsustainable competitive advantages, hypercompetition is practically met in all fields of activity. This is why innovation, a prerequisite of competitiveness, has become increasingly important as, in order to achieve superior economic performance, both countries and organizations should make significant efforts to constantly innovate. The goals of the paper are to briefly define the concepts of national competitiveness and innovation, and to illustrate their relationship in the case of countries in the period 2019-2022. The authors achieved the objectives of the paper through a qualitative research method. The paper provides a better understanding of the terms of national competitiveness and innovation. Its novelty is given by the fact that it demonstrates that national competitiveness and innovation are connected at a global level. In the period 2019-2022, developed capitalist countries, in their vast majority, dominated in an obvious manner the top of the world's most competitive and innovative countries. These results may help policymakers and experts who are in charge of designing national strategies