Technology and Competitiveness in Mexico examines Mexico's efforts to transform from Third Word to First World economic status as international trade agreements are signed, and many closed economies open. Thomas J. Botzman explores this process by consolidating scholarly literature on Mexican technological development, including that published since the foreign reserve crisis and the subsequent devaluation of the peso in 1994. He discusses the technology transfer practices and industrial transformation as routes to international competitiveness in the manufacturing sector, an accepted key to economic growth and development, while highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of industrial development in Mexico. Botzman seeks to provide a benchmark for the study of modern technology development and competitiveness of Mexican industry through a greater understanding of the cooperative linkages that need to be formed between academia, government, and private industry using case studies of the automobile, textile, chemical, and steel industries.
World Bank Technical Paper No. 300. Provides an overview of past experiences with the introduction of agricultural technologies in World Bank-funded projects in Mediterranean climates, with an emphasis on the Middle East and North African region. The authors review the adequacy of present crop and livestock technologies, identify technical and socio-economic constraints on their adoption, and describe prospective technologies for pilot testing and full-scale introduction in future Bank-funded projects.
Countries have been competing against each other in order to attract financial investment and human capital for decades. However, emerging economies have a long way to go before they achieve the same levels of competitiveness as a developed economy. Lack of firm institutions, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of trust in the legal system are urgent and unavoidable factors that emerging economies must address. The Handbook of Research on Increasing the Competitiveness of SMEs provides innovative insights on integrating, adapting, and building models and strategies compatible with the development of competitiveness in small and medium enterprises in emerging countries. The content within this publication examines quality management, organizational leadership, and digital security. It is designed for policymakers, entrepreneurs, managers, executives, business professionals, academicians, researchers, and students.
In the existing reports on national competitiveness and rankings such as IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook and WEF Global Competitiveness Report, there are sizable discrepancies in the ranking order for the same countries. As a result, the reader is often confused because such an outcome creates difficulties for government officials when translating these findings into real-world policies.These discrepancies are actually due to the differences in logic and analytical models used by IMD and WEF. Therefore, in recognizing the problems and limitations of these models, this book presents the IPS model as a new approach. As an extension of Michael Porter's diamond model, it demonstrates a robust set of methodologies as well as offers a number of key policy implications for countries around the world that wish to enhance their national competitiveness.The analytical tools used in this book can be further utilized for other units of analysis such as industries and firms. As this book provides a series of sophisticated methodologies and specific guidelines for enhancing national competitiveness, both academics and practitioners can derive useful implications from this research.Alongside the theoretical frameworks and methodologies for national competitiveness presented in this book, the special theme and focus of this third volume is the fourth industrial revolution and the emerging technologies that are relevant to corporate and national competitiveness.The discussion on the digitalization of business began as early as the 1990s, but emerging technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing have only been a recent trend. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of emerging technologies by both firms and countries. Yet, despite the growing importance of emerging technologies, firms and governments seem to be lagging in effectively integrating them into their operations. To address these challenges, this book explains how emerging technologies have affected firms, industries, and countries. It also welcomes discussion on how firms and countries are responding to the changing environment to enhance their competitiveness through these new technologies.
The technological revolution has reached around the world, with important consequences for business, government, and the labor market. Computer-aided design, telecommunications, and other developments are allowing small players to compete with traditional giants in manufacturing and other fields. In this volume, 16 engineering and industrial experts representing eight countries discuss the growth of technological advances and their impact on specific industries and regions of the world. From various perspectives, these distinguished commentators describe the practical aspects of technology's reach into business and trade.
Technology and globalization are threatening manufacturing’s traditional ability to deliver both productivity and jobs at a large scale for unskilled workers. Concerns about widening inequality within and across countries are raising questions about whether interventions are needed and how effective they could be. Trouble in the Making? The Future of Manufacturing-Led Development addresses three questions: - How has the global manufacturing landscape changed and why does this matter for development opportunities? - How are emerging trends in technology and globalization likely to shape the feasibility and desirability of manufacturing-led development in the future? - If low wages are going to be less important in defining competitiveness, how can less industrialized countries make the most of new opportunities that shifting technologies and globalization patterns may bring? The book examines the impacts of new technologies (i.e., the Internet of Things, 3-D printing, and advanced robotics), rising international competition, and increased servicification on manufacturing productivity and employment. The aim is to inform policy choices for countries currently producing and for those seeking to enter new manufacturing markets. Increased polarization is a risk, but the book analyzes ways to go beyond focusing on potential disruptions to position workers, firms, and locations for new opportunities. www.worldbank.org/futureofmanufacturing
International trade and investment have been buffeted over the past three years by US-China trade war tariffs, high-technology export controls, and other economic sanctions targeting Chinese policies. The COVID-19 pandemic has further disrupted production and created bottlenecks transporting goods within and between countries. International businesses have had to recalibrate their supply chains to make them more resilient to these and other shocks. Firms needing to diversify from China are now considering whether to reorganize production across Asia to complement continuing Chinese operations or to shift investment out of Asia to shorten supply chains serving the US market. The most promising candidate for large-scale nearshoring is Mexico, but so far at least, Mexico has not lured substantial new investments that could supplant Asian production serving the US market. In a collaborative effort to explore the feasibility and benefits of relocating production to Mexico, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) organized a group of leading scholars and former officials to offer their individual perspectives in this collection of short essays. The Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Strategic and International Studies are grateful to Chubb Ltd. for its support of this project.
This study defines the aims and tools of a new innovation policy and identifies examples of good policy practice recently implemented in OECD countries.
