Share:


Southeast Asian nations’ regional competitiveness: an exploration through grey relational analysis

    Tzu-Yi Fang Affiliation
    ; Sheng-Wei Lin Affiliation
    ; Huai-Wei Lo Affiliation
    ; Chia-Hao Wu Affiliation

Abstract

This study aims to explore the comparison of the regional competitiveness of the nations targeted by Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy and the key indicators that influence regional competitiveness. Through comparative analysis between each other, we will further select countries and regions that are most suitable for investment and exchange. Regional competitiveness describes the ability of various economies to compete for resources or markets in a region. Exploring regional competitiveness allows the best nations for investment to be identified so that unnecessary costs and losses may be avoided. This paper proposes a multiple attribute decision making method, grey relational analysis (GRA), for solving this kind of problem. This study investigates the regional competitiveness of various nations using competitiveness rankings obtained through the ranking of grey relational ordinals. The study seeks to identify critical factors underlying regional competitiveness. The study variables are grouped into four major factors: economy, human resources, technology, and trade capability. The results reveal that India, Singapore, and Australia are nations with regional competitive advantages. Labor force and technology are indispensable factors for enhancing regional competitiveness. ASEAN countries have greater regional competitiveness than South Asia or Australia and New Zealand.


First published online 09 June 2022

Keyword : regional competitiveness, ASEAN countries, grey relational analysis

How to Cite
Fang, T.-Y., Lin, S.-W., Lo, H.-W., & Wu, C.-H. (2022). Southeast Asian nations’ regional competitiveness: an exploration through grey relational analysis. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 28(5), 1287–1312. https://doi.org/10.3846/tede.2022.17033
Published in Issue
Sep 12, 2022
Abstract Views
858
PDF Downloads
669
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Akman, M. S. (2016). Global trade governance and G20: A response to mega-regional trade agreements. Rising Powers Quarterly, 1(1), 85–93.

Amin, K. (2010). Regional cooperation in South Asia. In S. Ahmed, S. Kelegama, & E. Ghani (Eds.), Promoting economic cooperation in South Asia (pp. 321–347). SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9788132107965.n14

Appendini, K., & Bislev, S. (2016). Economic integration in NAFTA and the EU: Deficient institutionality. Springer.

Baier, S. L., & Bergstrand, J. H. (2007). Do free trade agreements actually increase members’ international trade? Journal of International Economics, 71(1), 72–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2006.02.005

Best, M. (2001). The new competitive advantage: The renewal of American industry. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0198297459.001.0001

Bilbao-Terol, A., Arenas-Parra, M., & Onopko-Onopko, V. (2017). Measuring regional sustainable competitiveness: A multi-criteria approach. Operational Research, 19, 637–660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12351-017-0367-9

Bowen, B. D., Headley, D., Kane, K. D., & Lutte, R. K. (2018). Enhancing global competitiveness: Benchmarking airline operational performance in highly regulated environments. The Collegiate Aviation Review International, 17(1).

Bristow, G. (2010). Resilient regions: re-‘place’ing regional competitiveness. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 3(1), 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsp030

Camagni, R. (2017). Regional competitiveness: Towards a concept of territorial capital. In R. Capello (Ed.), Seminal studies in regional and urban economics (pp. 115–131). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57807-1_6

Caporaso, J. A. (2018). The European Union: Dilemmas of regional integration. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429496561

Charles, V., & Díaz, G. (2017). A non-radial DEA index for Peruvian regional competitiveness. Social Indicators Research, 134(2), 747–770. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1444-9

Chou, Y.-C., Yen, H.-Y., Dang, V. T., & Sun, C.-C. (2019). Assessing the human resource in science and technology for Asian countries: Application of fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS. Symmetry, 11(2), 251. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym11020251

Coccia, M. (2019). Why do nations produce science advances and new technology? Technology in Society, 59, 101124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2019.03.007

Dima, A., Begu, L., Vasilescu, M., & Maassen, M. (2018). The relationship between the knowledge economy and global competitiveness in the European Union. Sustainability, 10(6), 1706. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061706

Djogo, M., & Stanisic, N. (2016). Is the Global Competitiveness Report the right measure of macroeconomic competitiveness. Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci: časopis za ekonomsku teoriju i praksu, 34(1), 91–117. https://doi.org/10.18045/zbefri.2016.1.91

Doidge, M. (2016). The European Union and interregionalism: Patterns of engagement. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315616438

Duval, Y., & Feyler, E. (2016). Intra- and extraregional trade costs of ASEAN Economies: Implications for Asian regional integration. In B. Jetin & M. Mikic (Eds.), ASEAN Economic Community (pp. 153–172). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137535085_8

European Commission. (1999). Sixth periodic Report on the social and economic situation and development of the regions of the European Union. Publications Office, Brussels.

Fidrmuc, J., & Korhonen, I. (2010). The impact of the global financial crisis on business cycles in Asian emerging economies. Journal of Asian Economics, 21(3), 293–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asieco.2009.07.007

Garelli, S. (2014). The fundamentals and history of competitiveness. In IMD world competitiveness yearbook (pp. 488–503). International Institute for Management Development.

Ginevičius, R., Nazarko, J., Gedvilaitė, D., & Dacko-Pikiewicz, Z. (2021). Quantifying the economic development dynamics of a country based on the Lorenz curve. E+M Ekonomie a Management, 24(1), 55–65. https://doi.org/10.15240/tul/001/2021-1-004

Guerrero, M., Urbano, D., & Fayolle, A. (2016). Entrepreneurial activity and regional competitiveness: Evidence from European entrepreneurial universities. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 41(1), 105–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-014-9377-4

Hanson, G. H. (2012). The rise of middle kingdoms: Emerging economies in global trade. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(2), 41–64. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.26.2.41

Haseeb, M., Hussain, H. I., Kot, S., Androniceanu, A., & Jermsittiparsert, K. (2019). Role of social and technological challenges in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage and sustainable business performance. Sustainability, 11(14), 3811. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11143811

Hsiao, S.-W., & Hsiao, Y.-T. (2016). A study of integrating the grey relational multi-attribute decision making analysis into the selection of product seriation scheme. Journal of Discrete Mathematical Sciences and Cryptography, 19(4), 911–934. https://doi.org/10.1080/09720529.2016.1225932

Huang, L., & Hergül, S. (2014). The regional competitiveness of Hungary. Modern Economy, 5(12), 1107. https://doi.org/10.4236/me.2014.512102

Hussain, H. I., Haseeb, M., Kamarudin, F., Dacko-Pikiewicz, Z., & Szczepańska-Woszczyna, K. (2021). The role of globalization, economic growth and natural resources on the ecological footprint in Thailand: Evidence from Nonlinear Causal Estimations. Processes, 9(7), 1103. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9071103

Hussain, H. I., Szczepańska-Woszczyna, K., Kamarudin, F., Anwar, N. A. M., & Saudi, M. H. M. (2021). Unboxing the black box on the dimensions of social globalisation and the efficiency of microfinance institutions in Asia. Oeconomia Copernicana, 12(3), 557–592. https://doi.org/10.24136/oc.2021.019

Ikram, M., Shen, Y., Ferasso, M., & D’Adamo, I. (2021). Intensifying effects of COVID-19 on economic growth, logistics performance, environmental sustainability and quality management: Evidence from Asian countries. Journal of Asia Business Studies, 16(3), 448–471. https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-07-2021-0316

Kalim, R., Arshed, N., & Shaheen, S. (2019). Does competitiveness moderate inclusive growth: A panel study of low-income countries. Competitiveness Review, 29(2), 119–138. https://doi.org/10.1108/CR-11-2017-0074

Kitson, M., Martin, R., & Tyler, P. (2004). Regional competitiveness: An elusive yet key concept? Regional Studies, 38(9), 991–999. https://doi.org/10.1080/0034340042000320816

Kobayashi, K., Rashid, K. A., Furuichi, M., & Anderson, W. P. (2017). Economic integration and regional development: The ASEAN economic community. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315534053

Koçak, D., & Özer, M. A. (2021). Comparing the quality of governance across the European Union member countries: A grey relational analysis approach. Policy Studies, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2021.1994135

Kramulová, J., & Jablonský, J. (2016). AHP model for competitiveness analysis of selected countries. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 24(2), 335–351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100-015-0394-7

Kuznets, P. W. (1988). An east Asian model of economic development: Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 36(S3), S11–S43. https://doi.org/10.1086/edcc.36.s3.1566537

Loo, M. K. L. (2018). Global competitiveness of ASEAN: implications for Canadian businesses. Transnational Corporations Review, 10(1), 13–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/19186444.2018.1436642

Mahrinasari, M. S., Haseeb, M., & Ammar, J. (2019). Is trade liberalization a hazard to sustainable environment? Fresh insight from ASEAN countries. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 19(1), 249–259. https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2019.19.1.19

Onyusheva, I., Thammashote, L., & Kot, S. (2018). ASEAN: Problems of regional integration. Espacios, 39(36), 2.

Öz, Ö. (2019). The competitive advantage of nations. In The Competitive Advantage of Nations: The Case of Turkey (pp. 1–27). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429439087

Porter, M. E. (1993). The competitive advantage of nations. Harvard Business School Management Programs. Cambridge.

Przygoda, M. (2017). The role and importance of Australia in the South Pacific region. In Economic and Social Development: Book of Proceedings, 54.

Roy, S. (2018). Impact of competitiveness drivers on Global competitiveness index. Pacific Business Review International, 11(2), 17–29.

Schwab, K. (2009). The global competitiveness report 2009–2010. Wold Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland.

Shorr, D., & Wright, T. (2010). The G20 and global governance: An exchange. Survival, 52(2), 181–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/00396331003764694

Stone, H. B., & Ranchhod, A. (2006). Competitive advantage of a nation in the global arena: A quantitative advancement to Porter’s diamond applied to the UK, USA and BRIC nations. Strategic Change, 15(6), 283–284. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.770

Suganthi, L. (2018). Multi expert and multi criteria evaluation of sectoral investments for sustainable development: An integrated fuzzy AHP, VIKOR/DEA methodology. Sustainable Cities and Society, 43, 144–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.08.022

Sun, B., Jiang, J., Zheng, F., Zhao, W., Liaw, B. Y., Ruan, H., Han, Z., & Zhang, W. (2015). Practical state of health estimation of power batteries based on Delphi method and grey relational grade analysis. Journal of Power Sources, 282, 146–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.01.106

Te, V., Griffiths, R., Law, K., Hill, P. S., & Annear, P. L. (2018). The impact of ASEAN economic integration on health worker mobility: A scoping review of the literature. Health Policy and Planning, 33(8), 957–965. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czy071

Torkayesh, A. E., & Torkayesh, S. E. (2021). Evaluation of information and communication technology development in G7 countries: An integrated MCDM approach. Technology in Society, 66, 101670. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2021.101670

Wade, R. H. (2011). Emerging world order? From multipolarity to multilateralism in the G20, the World Bank, and the IMF. Politics & Society, 39(3), 347–378. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329211415503

Yang, C. C. (2018). Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy: Implications for the Relations between Taiwan and ASEAN. The Japanese Journal of Law and Political Science, 54(1), 199–214. https://doi.org/10.20816/jalps.54.1_199

Yang, Y.-C., & Chen, S.-L. (2016). Determinants of global logistics hub ports: Comparison of the port development policies of Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. Transport Policy, 45, 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2015.10.005

You, M.-L., Shu, C.-M., Chen, W.-T., & Shyu, M.-L. (2017). Analysis of cardinal grey relational grade and grey entropy on achievement of air pollution reduction by evaluating air quality trend in Japan. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142(Part 4), 3883–3889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.072

Zhang, T., & Matthews, K. (2019). Assessing the degree of financial integration in ASEAN – A perspective of banking competitiveness. Research in International Business and Finance, 47, 487–500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2018.09.009