The healthy development of economies: A strategic framework for competitiveness in the health industry

J. Robert Branston, Lauretta Rubini, Roger Sugden and James Wilson

Review of Social Economy, 2006, vol. 64, issue 3, 301-329

Abstract: Applying a strategic decision-making perspective on the economics of business, we suggest that a competitive locality in the health industry is one that, relative to other localities, is effective in: (1) providing the healthcare that enables everyone to participate fully in the democratic development of the locality; (2) providing the healthcare that is democratically identified as a direct objective of this development; (3) contributing through the health industry to any other democratically determined objectives of the locality's development. The paper hypothesizes that strategic decision-making in organizations is an especially significant determinant of the impacts of the health industry. We conclude that: (i) a locality that suffers concentration in the power to determine the objectives of its health industry could not be strictly competitive in that industry; (ii) the first best way to achieve competitiveness in the health industry would be to democratize its strategic decision-making. What this would entail in practice is discussed in some detail.

Keywords: health industry; competitiveness; strategic decision-making; economic development; economic democracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1080/00346760600892717

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