IMD World Competitiveness Booklet 2021

Figure 1. Significant socio-economic and political factors in 2021

Most important trends impacting business in 2021 according to executives The prolongedpresenceof COVID-19 Environmentalsustainability Geopoliticalconflicts CorporateSocialResponsibility Working remotely

80%

73%

70%

66%

65%

63%

62%

61%

60%

60%

60%

54%

52%

50%

44%

43%

43%

40% % of respondents (multipleanswers)

35%

32%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Switzerland

Sweden

Denmark

Netherlands

Singapore

new technologies and repurposing existing technologies) and in relation to supporting their staff’s digitalization (i.e., access to training in new technologies and redeploying existing skills). Again, we can identify a global trend: executives identified the adoption of new technologies as the most successful undertaking from last year. This suggests an agile response to the effects of the pandemic in the private sector. Then, different economies are characterized by alternative measures adopted. While Switzerland and Denmark advocate that repurposing current technologies was an essential response to the pandemic, Sweden and Singapore were enabling employees to train according to technological change. There are three pillars that innovation depends upon: talent, the availability of capital and supportive regulation. Education is the most important long-term criterion that results in the development of highly skilled labor,

which in turn affects both the level of productivity as well as R&D capabilities. Countries like Switzerland, Singapore and the Nordic economies dominate the top positions. With respect to the availability of capital, economies like Switzerland, the USA, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands and Finland are in the top of the Finance sub-factor. And finally, the third pillar — Institutional Framework — is dominated by Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark. The second broad trend is related to the capacity of an economy to transition away from the way work and school functioned in the past, towards the new way of remote working and learning. This is measured by the Technological Infrastructure in which countries like Singapore, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and the USA capture the top positions of the sub-factor. The economic disruption introduced by the pandemic resulted in increasing levels of unemployment as well as

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IMD WORLD COMPETITIVENESS BOOKLET 2021