Successful economic development is a process of successive upgrading. As nations develop, they progress in terms of their characteristic competitive advantage and modes of competing.

This paper tests for the existence of a non-linear pattern in the process of real economic convergence. It uses a sample of 88 countries for the period 1980-1999.

The majority of published research to date focuses on HRM in large organisation.

­The literature devoted to economic development concerns itself in a growing de­gree with the role and importance of institutions­­­

Irrespective of their size, companies seem to be more efficient when they compete with one another, and more creative when they co-operate.