The Role Of The Enterprises On Developing The Competitive Advantage Of Nations

World Economic Forum announced the global competitiveness rank of 2006 in September, 2006 and the North European countries behaved outstandingly. There were three North European countries among the top five, which were Finland, Sweden and Denmark, while China ranked the 54th. China's economy has developed rapidly since the release of Reform and Opening-up policy. The industrial structure has been adjusted and upgraded and there emerged some industries and enterprises with comparative advantage and competitive advantage. Instead of overall resource seeking type, the export type became mainly rely on industrial manufactured goods, accompanied by resource seeking and high-tech products. The international competitiveness of China has been strengthened remarkably, however, there is still a big gap between China and some developed countries. As the main body participating in international direct competition, enterprises represents national competitiveness, that is to say they are playing an important role in promoting the national competitive advantages.First, the dissertation introduces the history of industry development and the current situation of international competitiveness of the typical countries in North Europe and China. Then, based on Potter's National Competitive Advantage theory and the evaluation system on national competitiveness of WEF, combining both theoretic and demonstratic methods, the dissertation studies the role of the enterprises in forming and developing the national competitive advantage through comparison between the enterprises of North Europe and China. It finds that enterprises still promote the national competitive advantage through the influence of factors of production, demand conditions, technical innovations and diffusion, improvement of the microeconomic environment and public system. The article also finds out the disparity of Chinese enterprise on these respects, and advances some suggestions for the Chinese enterprises, especially the large and medium-sized enterprises on how to develop international competitiveness and promote the national competitive advantage. Finally this article puts forward some policy implications for both the enterprises and the government on how to promote the national competitive advantage together.