Revisiting the competitiveness theory in the new global environment: review and analysis of the competitiveness definition

The purpose of this research is to conceptualise the definition of competitiveness, based on extant theoretical and empirical research, thereby advancing the process of competitiveness theory building. To address the research purpose, the study analysed theoretical backgrounds of competitiveness to develop a comprehensive perspective and definition of the construct. To address the research purpose, in this study: 1) a theory building process (Silver, 1983) was used to analyse existing definitions of the competitiveness construct; 2) theoretical concepts were extracted from the existing competitiveness definitions and theories; 3) based on the analysis, a comprehensive definition of competitiveness was proposed.