In the manufacturing sectors more severely hit by the crisis, the most resilient firms have been those that have been capable of shifting their sales to the most dynamic emerging markets, and those with a high degree of market power warranted by their ability to innovate and satisfy their customers’ needs.
The EFIGE project has a third important facet which is worth mentioning: its European perspective. In Europe, common cultural and historical roots, common goals and policy frameworks live together with a pervasive national heterogeneity. The diversity ranges from institutional architectures to political decision-making, to economic agents’ choices and patterns of behaviour.