Intellectual Capital as a Factor of Sustainable Regional Competitiveness

Abstract

Sustainable competitive advantage is a widely explored topic at the organizational level. Although, regions care about competitiveness as much as organizations, because it leads to improved welfare and economic performance. However, sustainable regional competitiveness is still an ambiguous concept. On the one hand, it considers long lasting economic growth and on the other hand, it focuses on the sustainability and well-being of upcoming generations. This paper considers both aspects. Intellectual capital, considered to be the foundation for competitive growth, is selected as a basis for the analysis. It is evaluated as a factor involved in regional competitiveness. Sustainable regional competitiveness in this paper is defined based on the World Economic Forum framework, the Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index, and the Global Green Economy Index. The aim of the paper is to identify the interlinks between intellectual capital and sustainable regional competitiveness. The paper is based on a literature review and index analysis. The findings show that intellectual capital is involved in almost all factors influencing regional competitiveness and it is even more important for sustainable regional competitiveness. It can be concluded that the interlinks between intellectual capital and sustainable regional competitiveness are strong and inseparable.

Bridging Intellectual Capital and SMEs Internationalization through the Lens of Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A Systematic Literature Review

“…All these systematic approaches have put forward compelling insights for the scope of the current endeavor, nevertheless they only set the premises for a more targeted outlook of the key variables. Given the fact that our search strategy did not return breakthrough approaches on the topic and in light of the findings of previous studies [30][31][32][33][34][35], we acknowledged the existence of a research gap and the imperative to provide an output for readers and researchers (i.e., a research agenda and/or a conceptual framework on the topic) liable to bring to the fore future research avenues.…”

“…This situation is indicative of the fact that these studies have not discussed the relationships among the constructs/key variables in a comprehensive framework, but rather in tangential approaches, thus calling for more articulate and specific investigations. A new path towards further exploration of the underlying conceptual relationships between constructs and of the structural relationships between factors within more complex methodological designs is opened, all the more so as, nowadays, SMEs internationalization process cannot be framed anymore in the absence of intangible assets and sustainability views [14][15][16][17][18][19][30][31][32][33][34][35]129]. Moreover, taking into consideration the distribution criterion of articles with regard to the year of publication and the source journals most contributions have been published in (as depicted in Table 3), a growing interest has been displayed in academia and research for this topic or for related ones since 2011, as objectivized in top-ranked scientific outlets.…”

Sustainable and Special Economic Zone Selection under Fuzzy Environment: A Case of Pakistan

“…Like railways, motorways/high way (LI4) helps to connect SEZ with high-speed trade corridor with expanded outreach [30,50,57]. Air transport (LI5) makes the delivery of delicate and perishable items and international exports in quick time [5,6,32]. Availability of Dry port (LI6) for inland customs and clearing [2,23] and Sea Port (LI7) for importing and exporting cargo and raw material in bulk [54] makes SEZ more competitive.…”

“…Zone 3.0 ensures that SEZ is sustainable in resource utilization. In order to ensure sustainability, the zone's energy consumption (EN1) is vital to address its environmental impacts [9,32,60]. The zones with high energy consumption normally adopt pollutant energy sources like coal that affect the environment adversely.…”

“…It is a universal practice to have all these so-called "quasi incentives" available on the spot in order to minimize the ease of doing business [11]. However, realizing the objectives of sustainable economic development [32], two concepts are getting attention. "Sustainable industrial areas" facilitate and guide sustainability as a whole, and "circular economy zones" stimulate efficient resource utilization, provide waste management, and emissions control [13].…”