领域：学术论文 · 社会科学

Talent competitiveness refers to the ability of a country or a region to cultivate, attract, and utilize talent resources for its economic and social development, as demonstrated by its talent strategy, policy, and deployment, thereby contributing to the development of the region or the country [1]. National competitiveness is influenced by higher education and scientific research systems, both of which depend on talent competitiveness. Countries around the world have introduced several talent policies to promote national development. In 2022, the UK’s Research and Innovation Agency (RIA) formulated its Strategy 2022–2027: Changing the Future Together, focusing on building a system of excellence in research and innovation to achieve the goal of becoming a global science and technology powerhouse and an innovation-driven nation [2]. In 2023, the U.S. Federal Government introduced its STEM education plan for the period 2023–2028, which was laid out in four areas including education, social engagement, workforce development, and research & innovation capability, as the key support for the U.S. to maintain its global leadership in science and technology [3]. In China, another major economy in the world, the synergistic development of science, education, and talent is seen as fundamental and strategic for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country [4]. In both the West and the East, talent search has been recognized as the most important task over decades [5].
The European Institute of Business Administration (hereinafter, INSEAD), established in 1957, is headquartered in Fontainebleau, France, with additional campuses in locations including Singapore and Abu Dhabi. INSEAD’s educational mission is to develop future business leaders with a global perspective, a strong sense of responsibility, and the capacity to drive meaningful impact. The institution offers a diverse portfolio of academic programs, including the MBA program, designed to cultivate senior leadership talent; the Executive MBA (EMBA) program, targeting mid- to senior-level managers; and the PhD program, which focuses on rigorous academic research. In addition to its degree offerings, INSEAD engages in specialized research initiatives led by expert teams that integrate resources from multiple sources to conduct focused academic investigations and produce comprehensive database reports. One such initiative is the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (hereinafter, GTCI) project, which is discussed in detail in the following section.
To assess and monitor the landscape of global talent cultivation, INSEAD has taken the lead in launching the GTCI. The GTCI index focuses on the ability of countries or economies to cultivate, attract and retain talent, and has received extensive attention from academics for its comprehensiveness, international comparability, dynamic monitoring capability, and policy guidance. Seminal studies have examined the effectiveness of the GTCI. By analyzing the role of talent in the economic development of various countries and economies, researchers suggest that the GTCI could be used as a competitiveness measurement standard [6] as it assesses a country’s talent competitiveness from a comprehensive and objective perspective [7].
Pioneering research has used the GTCI data to conduct international comparisons. After an in-depth analysis of the G20 countries’ performance in talent competitiveness, researchers found that developed countries are particularly strong in talent competitiveness [8]. Some scholars have also examined the migration status of 25 countries and found a positive correlation between a country’s migration status and its GTCI performance, highlighting the importance of talent competitiveness in driving a country’s development [9]. Moreover, several studies have utilized the GTCI data for dynamic monitoring and analysis: using the European innovation scoreboard, scholars have analyzed the changes in Poland’s GTCI data between 2013 and 2018 and pointed out the challenges for talent management and innovation [10]. These capabilities provide important research insights for policymakers, business leaders, and academic researchers worldwide.
Extending the aforementioned literature, this study takes GTCI as the key data source and selects G20 countries as the main objects of analysis. In the past, the established literature from the fields of political economy [11], development studies [12], and public policy [13] has carefully sketched the issue of China’s talent competitiveness. However, few studies have compared the talent competitiveness of China with a representative coalition of countries such as the G20, resulting in a lack of international comparative perspective. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, Chinese scholars had already begun to pay attention to the issue of talent competitiveness and to build China’s assessment system in the foreground [14]. However, as of 2024, there is still no substantial breakthrough drawn on such a comprehensive database as the GTCI database.
As of now, the scholarly discussions on the issue of talent competitiveness in Chinese academia focus on two aspects: (a) analyzing talent competition between regions and (b) providing vague suggestions for policy-making without detailed solutions. This is caused by China’s rapid development in the 21st century, which leaves regional competition being the focus of public policy research while talent competitiveness is an accessory. At the same time, there is a research gap between economic advancement and educational development: globalized economic development requires China to have a more developed talent competitiveness system, but the mainstream examination-based education system is not conducive to such development.
Thus, in studies focusing solely on China’s talent competitiveness, there are three research gaps that can be summarized. First, due to the lack of national-level datasets, most of the existing studies are based on individual provinces in China and are not generalizable enough. Second, current Chinese-language research in talent competitiveness mainly focuses on local policy slogans, with relatively broad arguments and a lack of empirical data support. Third, relevant studies in English language still have not proposed a set of systematic, comprehensive evaluation frameworks to measure the competitiveness of talents across the world, which hinders academics from deep diving into talent policies.
Additionally, there is an unmet need of highly skilled professionals in China, partly due to the disadvantage of its education system. China’s low attractiveness to talent has also led to a large number of Chinese overseas students being reluctant to return to China and foreign talent being reluctant to enter China [15]. The lack of a scientific evaluation system is not conducive to the updating of talent competitiveness policies at the national level, thus leading to a vicious circle of local talent competitiveness policies.
Given this, this research proposes and adopts an original analysis matrix as a multi-dimensional and multi-indicator framework (which we name PEST-embedded SWOT matrix), for assessing talent competitiveness. By comparatively analyzing the performance of different countries in terms of talent competitiveness, this investigation aims to accurately grasp China’s position and posture in the global talent competition, thereby putting forward targeted improvement paths and policy recommendations in terms of talent cultivation, attraction, and utilization. We aimed to conduct a comprehensive literature analysis and introduce an analytical matrix to extract the indicators embedded in the GTCI data that influence China’s talent competitiveness. These indicators are compared with those of G20 countries to explore the underlying reasons for observed changes. Through this comparative analysis, we seek to identify the key factors shaping China’s talent competitiveness and examine the political, economic, social, and technological deficiencies contributing to these challenges. This research will provide valuable insights into strategies for enhancing China’s talent competitiveness. Furthermore, we will lay the groundwork for developing a national talent competitiveness assessment system tailored to China’s specific context. In subsequent research, the current absence of a standardized and unified evaluation framework is expected to become increasingly evident.
Building upon this research, we aim to develop a standardized and unified talent competitiveness assessment system for China. Ideally, this system will adopt a dual structure, comprising a nationally unified framework as the core, complemented by region-specific subsystems that reflect local cultural and contextual variations. This ambitious initiative represents the practical application of preceding theoretical research. However, achieving this objective necessitates a solid foundation of theoretical inquiry grounded in current realities, drawing upon the well-established GTCI talent competitiveness evaluation model. Accordingly, this study employs a SWOT-PEST analytical matrix (political, economic, social, and technological) to systematically examine the key factors shaping China’s present talent competitiveness landscape.
 

翻译考点：
考点1： "talent search "应译为 "招才引智 / 人才寻觅”
考点2： "drive meaningful impact "应译为 “推动产生深远影响 / 创造有意义的价值”
考点3： "Seminal studies "应译为 “开创性研究 / 奠基性研究”
考点4：" Pioneering research" 应译为 "先驱性研究 / 开创性研究"
考点5：" in the foreground "应译为" 前瞻性地 / 率先"
考点6：" research gap "应译为 研究空白
考点7： grounded in current realities 应译为 立足于当前现实 / 植根于现实情况