Abstract

The Irish economy has boomed in recent years based on a strategy of attracting FDI, and has become a model economy particularly for EU accession countries. This chapter sets out to provide a deeper understanding of Ireland’s success in the context of Porter’s Diamond Model of national competitiveness. A number of analyses have been done in Ireland on the relevance of Porter’s Diamond theory to national competitiveness. O’Connell, van Egeraat and Enright (1997) adopted a Porter Diamond analysis in examining clusters in the Irish dairy industry; O’Gorman, O’Malley and Mooney (1997) examined national competitive advantage through clusters in the Irish Software sector; and Clancy, O’Malley, O’Connell and van Egeraat (2001) similarly examined industry clusters in Ireland in relation to the software industry, the dairy industry and the popular music industry. These aforementioned papers summarise the determinants of national competitive advantage à la Porter and provide critiques of Porter’s Diamond theory in the context of Ireland notably in regard to the important role of FDI in the Irish economy.