<p>The objective of this future-focused study is to co-evolve research directions and themes that strengthen the interfaces between competitiveness and functional areas of management—such as finance, human resource management, sustainability, and technology management—to enhance firm, industry, and country competitiveness and prosperity. This context-rich retrospective review examines longitudinal trends in the International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness (<b>JGBC</b>) from its inception to June 2025, assessing citation impact, cross-country collaborations, and evolving research themes. Methodologically, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of 175 articles, mapping prominent themes, their temporal evolution, and current trajectories in competitiveness and international business. Findings suggest a fourfold annual growth in publications since 2005, with strong contributions in competitiveness, technology and innovation management, strategic management, operations, and supply chain flexibility. The scope has progressively expanded to include financial management, sustainability, entrepreneurship, and organisational management. Finally, the study provides insights into topics at the interfaces of competitiveness and functional areas of management, aiming to accelerate the competitiveness journey of firms, institutions, and other organisations through unique collaboration. This study, at the milestone year of the quarter century, also reflects the competitiveness journey of many emerging countries, which face “Vexing Problems” that require new insights about competitiveness to address these issues. Finally, the study contributes to SDG 9 by enhancing research on “industry, innovation and infrastructure”.</p>