How can Europe compete in the 21st century?

Given the challenges that Europe now faces, the objective of this paper is to try to answer the following question: How can Europe compete in the 21st century? To attempt to answer the question, 50 of Europe's senior executiv es were selected and interviewed in depth to get their views and solutions (3.2, 3.3). The paper summarises some, but by no means all, of the top-line findings and our own analysis and synthesis from the research. The main fi ndings are organised around the subjects: Global thinking/local commitment, creating new knowledge for innovation, promoting a culture for innovation and entrepreneur ship and transforming of work processes. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.