We relied this research on the findings of a previous study (Popa & Stefan, 2015b) which (using Factor Analysis procedure) revealed two factors/dimensions of country-level competitiveness in the initial dataset of twelve variables provided by the raw data (Competitiveness Dataset – Xls), on which was built The Global Competitiveness Report 2014 -2015 (World Economic Forum, 2014a). Furthermore, the first factor/dimension of competitiveness (Smart Growth) suggests a possible link with the objectives set by the Strategy Euro 2020 (a smart, inclusive and sustainable Europe). In this respect, the aim of this paper is (based on the data as mentioned earlier and findings) to propose a synthetic indicator of country-level competitiveness and to deepen the analysis by investigating the possible causal relationships between the proposed index and the objectives of Euro 2020 Strategy. Thus, we have proposed several nine research hypotheses, which have been tested, and most of them validated employing linear regression procedure.

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Stefan, S. C., Popa, I., & Dobrin, C. O. (2016). Competitiveness in the context of Euro 2020 strategy. International Journal of Business and Administrative Studies, 2(4), 111-117.