Two propositions motivate this book. First, a country’s culture influences its economic performance and, second, its economic performance determines its position in the international pecking order. Economic vitality is imperative for sustaining a country’s leading position in world political economy. This vitality depends critically on its mass culture which is not static but rather evolves in response to changing socioeconomic environment.

1. To describe the relationship between a firm’s strengths relative to international rivals and the competitiveness of its home country.

2. To explain ‘Porter’s diamond’ and the interaction among the four diamond attributes.

3. To develop an understanding of how innovative firms can benefit from location advantages in a home cluster.

4. To identify the role of MNEs as ‘diamond connectors’ in the context of location advantages held by different countries.

5. To discuss the managerial relevance of a ‘national diamond-based’ analysis on the competitive advantage of nations.

This chapter introduces the background and key research question of the project for this book, which is an output of a multi-country study on a highly important subject in emerging markets: what types of capabilities do emerging market firms need, and how do they acquire and upgrade these capabilities in order to achieve competitiveness in the global market? The chapter highlights two unique aspects of emerging markets: weak institutions and lack of endowment. The main theme of the book thus becomes how emerging market companies develop competitive capabilities to international levels facing these two critical constraints. The chapter also discusses the organization of the book, which comprises twelve different country studies, and presents the methodology used to select and evaluate the firms studied.