The competitive advantage of nations: an application to academia

Article

Harzing, A. and Giroud, A. 2014. The competitive advantage of nations: an application to academia. Journal of Informetrics. 8 (1), pp. 29-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2013.10.007
TypeArticle
TitleThe competitive advantage of nations: an application to academia
AuthorsHarzing, A. and Giroud, A.
Abstract

Within the field of bibliometrics, there is sustained interest in how nations “compete” in terms of academic disciplines, and what determinants explain why countries may have a specific advantage in one discipline over another. However, this literature has not, to date, presented a comprehensive structured model that could be used in the interpretation of a country’s research profile and academic output. In this paper, we use frameworks from international business and economics to present such a model.
Our study makes four major contributions. First, we include a very wide range of countries and disciplines, explicitly including the Social Sciences, which unfortunately are excluded in most bibliometrics studies. Second, we apply theories of revealed comparative advantage and the competitive advantage of nations to academic disciplines. Third, we cluster our 34 countries into five different groups that have distinct combinations of revealed comparative advantage in five major disciplines. Finally, based on our empirical work and prior literature, we present an academic diamond that details factors likely to explain a country’s research profile and competitiveness in certain disciplines.

KeywordsRevealed comparative advantage; Academic disciplines; Essential science Indicators; Scientific productivity
Research GroupInternational and Cross-cultural Management group
PublisherElsevier
JournalJournal of Informetrics
ISSN1751-1577
Electronic1875-5879
Publication dates
Online14 Nov 2013
Print01 Jan 2014
Publication process dates
Deposited26 Mar 2015
Accepted17 Oct 2013
Output statusPublished
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2013.10.007
Scopus EID2-s2.0-84887577533
LanguageEnglish
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