Towards an internationalized sustainable industrial competitiveness model

Purpose – Within the context of globalization, industrial competitiveness has played a decisive role in determining a country’s status in the world. Porter’s Diamond Model is the most popular competitiveness theory currently available for explaining the achievement of a country’s industrial and firm’s competitive advantage. There has been considerable discourse in relation to Porter’s Model and the purpose of this paper is to critique and refine Porter’s Diamond Model and consider the theme of sustainable development towards the development of a new conceptual model, merging theories and concepts from internationalization, sustainable development and industry competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach – Critical analysis of industrial competitiveness literature to explore the discourse on Porter’s Model and identify challenges which are then informed by a consideration of internationalization and sustainable development literature. Findings – The Porter’s Diamond Model is re-formed as the Internationalized Sustainable Industrial Competitiveness Model (ISIC Model) to meet the trends of internationalization and sustainable development. Originality/value – The sustainable development concept is explicitly connected with competitiveness.