In the modern global economy, fast technological progress and deepening globalization change radically the context of economic development. The conventional understanding of inherited factor endowments as a determinant of the comparative advantage of countries is replaced by the concept of competitive advantage, with investment in knowledge and technological innovation underlying them. Therefore, attaining stable national competitiveness is a difficult task requiring a lot more than passive opening to the free markets. After the disintegration of the former Eastern Bloc and the end of the...