This paper examines the application of Porter's analysis of the competitive advantage of nations to understanding why one British local economy, Coventry, changed from a position of relative competitive disadvantage during the 1970s and early 1980s to one of advantage during the remainder of the 1980s. Each of Porter's four determinants of competitive advantage-supply conditions, demand conditions, firms, and clusters of activities—was found to have had some influence on explaining the change in Coventry's competitive advantage. With the qualification that analyses focus on processes of change and account is taken of the alterations in emphasis needed by changing the scale of analysis from national to local economies, Porter's ideas deserve a wider application and critical examination than they have hitherto received in local and regional economic studies.
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