Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/25655 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2007,088
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
This paper discusses the role of so-called national champions within the context of the EU’s ambitious goal to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economic region in the world by 2010. We find football to be a useful analogy in our discussion of national champions. There are many different types of football players: veteran performers who are past their prime, young stars who have not yet developed their full potential, fans’ darlings, and the actual stars—the key performers. For a team to be consistently successful across time, it needs to maintain the right mix of different types of players, particularly in regard to current and future key performers. What makes a key performer a “real” star is not only extraordinary talent but also, and perhaps even more important, ability to be a team player and inspire others to be the same. Applying this analogy to the economic field, we come to the conclusion that the “real” champions in the business environment serve as network pilots within regional networks. By fostering a dynamic economic environment, they create their own rents, unlike less successful firms who concentrate on unproductive rent seeking and shifting.
Subjects: 
national champions
industrial policy
evolutionary economics
systems of innovation
JEL: 
L52
O25
O33
P11
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
322.84 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.