This track invites submissions of empirical and conceptual papers exploring competitiveness in an international context, through the lens of digitalization and emerging markets.

Scholars are invited to reflect on the determinants of competitiveness from bottom-up (micro or firm-level and mezzo or cluster-level) and top-down (mezzo or regional level and macro or national/international level) perspectives.

Gaps at the intersection of management and economics literature around competitiveness, lend themselves to conceptually relevant research, with high practical impact. International competitiveness shapes both developing and developed nations, addressing challenges of strategy, firm growth and performance, sustainability, economic and social development, and policy-making, in an increasingly digitalized economy.

The topic aims to unveil the ultimate determinants of a nation’s or region’s productivity, rooted in the strategies and operating practices of locally-based firms, the vitality of clusters, and the quality of the business environment in which competition takes place.

Submissions addressing the roles that firms, industry associations, universities, and other institutions play in competitiveness are encouraged. In modern international competition, each of these institutions has an important role in economic development that is shifting. Contributions are likely to explore not only theory and policy, but also the organizational structures, institutional structures, and change processes required for sustained improvements in competitiveness.