International Competitiveness, Multinational Enterprise Technology Clubs and the Government Interface

The role of government in fostering "Competitiveness" is a major issue in recent industrial public policy debates. In fact, the increased politicization of international business represents one of the most significant changes in business-government relations over the last two decades. During this same time period, we also observe an enormous increase among multinational enterprises in their useage of interfirm partnerships and cooperative strategies in core technologies. This paper evaluates the increasingly important role of government public policy and the interdependencies between governments, technological innovations and the theory of international production. The analysis is guided by the underlying theme of applying heuristically the economic theory of clubs to the theory of international production.