Rejuvenating ‘Old Europe’: Towards a Strategy for Reindustrialisation and Sustainable Competitiveness

Abstract

We draw on the theory and practice of international competitiveness and developmental industrial policy (DIP), in order to propose a strategy for reindustrialisation and sustainable European international competitiveness. We suggest that European policy-makers should take stock of shifts in the global landscape and leverage ideas from business strategy to build sustainable competitive advantage, but in a way that also fosters system-wide economic sustainability. We propose business strategy-inspired specific measures to achieve this, based on an integration of some commonly perceived ‘dichotomies’ in extant debates on DIPs, but also submit that the path to European economic rejuvenation will remain fragile and precarious, as long as the requisite institutional and organisational infrastructure is not in place, and wider structural and policy challenges of modern market economies, notably embedded power structures and corruption, are not properly addressed.