Knowledge economy
Encyclopedia
The knowledge economy is a term that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...

 constraints, or to a knowledge-based economy. In the second meaning, more frequently used, it refers to the use of knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

 technologies (such as knowledge engineering
Knowledge engineering
Knowledge engineering was defined in 1983 by Edward Feigenbaum, and Pamela McCorduck as follows:At present, it refers to the building, maintaining and development of knowledge-based systems...

  and knowledge management
Knowledge management
Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...

) to produce economic benefits as well as job creation. The phrase was popularized by Peter Drucker
Peter Drucker
Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an influential writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”-Introduction:...

 as the title of Chapter 12 in his book The Age of Discontinuity, And, with a footnote in the text, Drucker attributes the phrase to economist Fritz Machlup
Fritz Machlup
Fritz Machlup was an Austrian-American economist. He was notable for being one of the first economists to examine knowledge as an economic resource....

.

The essential difference is that in a knowledge economy, knowledge is a product, while in a knowledge-based economy, knowledge is a tool. This difference is not yet well distinguished in the subject matter literature.
They both are strongly interdisciplinary, involving economists, computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians, librarians, geographers, chemists and physicists, as well as cognitivists, psychologists and sociologists.

Various observers describe today's global economy as one in transition to a "knowledge economy," as an extension of an "information society
Information society
The aim of the information society is to gain competitive advantage internationally through using IT in a creative and productive way. An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic,...

." The transition requires that the rules and practices that determined success in the industrial economy need rewriting in an interconnected, globalized economy where knowledge resources such as know-how
Trade secret
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...

 and expertise are as critical as other economic resources. According to analysts of the "knowledge economy," these rules need to be rewritten at the levels of firms and industries in terms of knowledge management and at the level of public policy as knowledge policy or knowledge-related policy.

Concepts

A key concept of the knowledge economy is that knowledge and education (often referred to as "human capital") can be treated as one of the following two:
  • A business product, as educational and innovative intellectual products and services can be exported for a high value return.
  • A productive asset


It can be defined as

" The concept that supports creation of knowledge by organizational employees and helps and encourages them to transfer and better utilize their knowledge that is in line with company/organization goals "

The initial foundation for the Knowledge Economy was first introduced in 1966 in the book The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. In this book, Drucker described the difference between the manual worker (page 2) and the knowledge worker
Knowledge worker
Knowledge workers in today's workforce are individuals who are valued for their ability to act and communicate with knowledge within a specific subject area. They will often advance the overall understanding of that subject through focused analysis, design and/or development. They use research...

. The manual worker, according to him, works with his hands and produces goods or services. In contrast, a knowledge worker (page 3) works with his or her head not hands, and produces ideas, knowledge, and information.

The key problem in the formalization
Formalization
Formalization may refer to* formal system in formal logic* a process enhancing bureaucracy in sociology...

 and modeling
Scientific modelling
Scientific modelling is the process of generating abstract, conceptual, graphical and/or mathematical models. Science offers a growing collection of methods, techniques and theory about all kinds of specialized scientific modelling...

 of knowledge economy, is a vague definition of knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

, which is a rather relative concept. For example, it is not proper to consider information society
Information society
The aim of the information society is to gain competitive advantage internationally through using IT in a creative and productive way. An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic,...

as interchangeable with knowledge society. Information
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...

is usually not equivalent to knowledge. Their use, as well, depends on individual and group preferences (see the cognitive IPK model) – which are "economy-dependent".

Definition

To participate in the knowledge economy trade the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

 provides four core requirements in their Knowledge Assessment Methodology
Knowledge Assessment Methodology
The Knowledge Assessment Methodology is "an interactive benchmarking tool created by the World Bank's Knowledge for Development Program to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in making the transition to the knowledge-based economy." KAM does so by providing...

 that a country must have. The World Bank defines the requirements as having sound institutional and economic regime, education system, and telecommunications infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

, and an Innovative System
National innovation system
The National Innovation System is the flow of technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions which is key to the innovative process on the national level...

.

Evolution

The knowledge economy is also seen as the latest stage of development in global economic restructuring
Economic restructuring
Economic restructuring refers to the phenomenon of Western urban areas shifting from a manufacturing to a service sector economic base. This transformation has affected demographics including income distribution, employment, and social hierarchy; institutional arrangements including the growth of...

. Thus far, the developed world has transitioned from an agricultural economy (pre-Industrial Age, largely the agrarian sector) to industrial economy (with the Industrial Age
Industrial Age
Industrial Age may refer to:*Industrialisation*The Industrial Revolution...

, largely the manufacturing sector) to post-industrial/mass production
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...

 economy (mid-1900s, largely the service sector) to knowledge economy (late 1900s – 2000s, largely the technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

/human capital
Human capital
Human capitalis the stock of competencies, knowledge and personality attributes embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value. It is the attributes gained by a worker through education and experience...

 sector). This latest stage has been marked by the upheavals in technological innovations and the globally competitive need for innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

 with new products and processes that develop from the research community (i.e., R&D factors, universities, labs, educational institutes).

In the knowledge economy, the specialized labor force is characterized as computer literate and well-trained in handling data, developing algorithms and simulated models, and innovating on processes and systems. Harvard Business School Professor, Michael Porter
Michael Porter
Michael Eugene Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School. He is a leading authority on company strategy and the competitiveness of nations and regions. Michael Porter’s work is recognized in many governments, corporations and academic circles globally...

 asserts that today’s economy is far more dynamic and that comparative advantage
Comparative advantage
In economics, the law of comparative advantage says that two countries will both gain from trade if, in the absence of trade, they have different relative costs for producing the same goods...

 is less relevant than competitive advantage which rests on “making more productive use of inputs, which requires continual innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

.” Consequently, the technical, STEM careers including computer scientists, engineers, chemists, biologists, mathematicians, and scientific inventors will see continuous demand in years to come. Additionally, well-situated clusters, which Michael Porter argues is vital in global economies, connect locally with linked industries, manufacturers, and other entities that are related by skills, technologies, and other common inputs. Hence, knowledge is the catalyst and connective tissue in modern economies.

With earth’s depleting natural resources, the need for green infrastructure, a logistics industry forced into just-in-time deliveries, growing global demand, regulatory policy governed by performance results, and a host of other items high priority is put on knowledge; and research becomes paramount. Knowledge provides the technical expertise, problem-solving, performance measurement and evaluation, and data management needed for the transboundary, interdisciplinary global scale of today’s competition.

Worldwide examples of the knowledge economy taking place among many others include: Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

 in California; aerospace and automotive engineering in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Germany; biotechnology in Hyderabad, India; electronics and digital media in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

, South Korea; petrochemical
Petrochemical
Petrochemicals are chemical products derived from petroleum. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane....

 and energy industry in Brazil.

Driving forces

Commentators suggest there are various interlocking driving forces, which are changing the rules of business and national competitiveness:
  • Globalization
    Globalization
    Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

     — markets and products are more global.
  • Information technology
    Information technology
    Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

    , which is related to next three:
    • Information
      Information
      Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...

      /Knowledge
      Knowledge
      Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

       Intensity — efficient production relies on information and know-how
      Trade secret
      A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...

      ; over 70 per cent of workers in developed economies are information workers; many factory workers use their heads more than their hands.
    • New Media
      New media
      New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...

       – New media increases the production and distribution of knowledge which in turn, results in collective intelligence
      Collective intelligence
      Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans and computer networks....

      . Existing knowledge becomes much easier to access as a result of networked data-bases which promote online interaction between users and producers.
    • Computer networking and Connectivity developments such as the Internet
      Internet
      The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

       bring the "global village" ever nearer.


As a result, goods and services can be developed, bought, sold, and in many cases even delivered over electronic networks.

As regards the applications of any new technology, this depends on how it meets economic demand. It can remain dormant or make a commercial breakthrough (see diffusion of innovation).

Characteristics

It can be argued that the knowledge economy differs from the traditional economy in several key respects:
  • The economics are not of scarcity, but rather of abundance. Unlike most resources that become depleted when used, information and knowledge can be shared, and actually grow through application.
  • The effect of location is either
    • diminished, in some economic activities: using appropriate technology and methods, virtual marketplace
      Marketplace
      A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...

      s and virtual organization
      Virtual organization
      Several unrelated things are named virtual organization:* In business an organization that can take one of the following forms:** a business which operates primarily via electronic means; see virtual business...

      s that offer benefits of speed, agility, round the clock operation and global reach can be created.
    • or, on the contrary, reinforced in some other economic fields, by the creation of business cluster
      Business cluster
      A business cluster is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. Clusters are considered to increase the productivity with which companies can compete, nationally and globally. In urban studies, the term agglomeration is used...

      s around centres of knowledge, such as universities and research centres. However, clusters already existed in pre-knowledge economy times.
  • Laws, barriers, taxes and ways to measure are difficult to apply solely on a national basis. Knowledge and information "leak" to where demand is highest and the barriers are lowest.
  • Knowledge enhanced products or services can command price premiums over comparable products with low embedded knowledge or knowledge intensity.
  • Pricing and value depends heavily on context. Thus the same information or knowledge can have vastly different value to different people, or even to the same person at different times.
  • Knowledge when locked into systems or processes has higher inherent value than when it can "walk out of the door" in people's heads.
  • Human capital — competencies — are a key component of value in a knowledge-based company, yet few companies report competency levels in annual reports. In contrast, downsizing is often seen as a positive "cost cutting" measure.
  • Communication is increasingly being seen as fundamental to knowledge flows. Social structures, cultural context and other factors influencing social relations are therefore of fundamental importance to knowledge economies.


These characteristics require new ideas and approaches from policy makers, managers and knowledge workers.

The knowledge economy has manifold forms in which it may appear but there are predictions that the new economy will extend radically, creating a pattern in which even ideas will be recognised and identified as a commodity. This certainly is not the best time to make any hasty judgment on this contention, but considering the very nature of 'knowledge' itself, added to the fact that it is the thrust of this new form of economy, there certainly is a clear way forward for this notion, though the particulars (i.e. the quantum of the revolutionary approach and its applicability and commercial value),remain in the speculative realm, as of now.

Technology

The technology requirements for an Innovative System
National innovation system
The National Innovation System is the flow of technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions which is key to the innovative process on the national level...

 as described by the World Bank Institute
World Bank Institute
The World Bank Institute is the capacity development branch of the World Bank. It provides learning programs, policy advice and technical assistance to policy makers, government and non-government agencies and development practitioners of developing countries...

 must be able to disseminate a unified process
Unified Process
The Unified Software Development Process or Unified Process is a popular iterative and incremental software development process framework. The best-known and extensively documented refinement of the Unified Process is the Rational Unified Process ....

 by which a working method may converge scientific and technology solutions, and organizational solutions. According to the World Bank Institute‘s definition, such innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

 would further enable the World Bank Institute‘s vision outlined in their Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...

.

Challenges for Developing Countries

The United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development report (UNCSTD, 1997) concluded that for developing countries to successfully integrate ICTs
Information and communication technologies for development
Information and Communication Technologies for Development is a general term referring to the application of Information and Communication Technologies within the fields of socioeconomic development, international development and human rights...

 and sustainable development in order to participate in the knowledge economy they need to intervene collectively and strategically. Such collective intervention suggested would be in the development of effective national ICT policies that support the new regulatory framework, promote the selected knowledge production, and use of ICTs and harness their organizational changes to be in line with the Millennium Development Goals. The report further suggests that developing countries to develop the required ICT strategies and policies for institutions and regulations taking into account the need to be responsive to the issues of convergence.

See also

  • Attention economy
    Attention economy
    Attention economics is an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems....

  • Cognitive-cultural economy
    Cognitive-cultural economy
    Cognitive-cultural economy is represented by sectors such as high-technology industry, business and financial services, personal services, the media, the cultural industries and so on. It is characterized by digital technologies combined with high levels of cognitive and cultural labor...

  • Digital economy
    Digital economy
    A digital economy is an economy based on electronic goods and services produced by an electronic business and traded through electronic commerce...

  • Information economy
    Information economy
    Information economy is a term that characterizes an economy with an increased emphasis on informational activities and information industry.The vagueness of the term has three major sources...

  • Intelligent city
  • International Innovation Index
  • Internet economy
    Internet Economy
    The internet economy conducts business through markets whose infrastructure is based on the Internet and World-Wide Web. An Internet economy differs from a traditional economy in a number of ways, including: communication, market segmentation, distribution costs, and price.- Internet economy...

  • Know-How Trading
    Know-How Trading
    Know-how trading is a web-based research and design phenomenon related to open innovation and crowdsourcing. It denotes Fee-based knowledge markets that treat knowledge and expertise as commodities that can be traded for financial gain...

  • Knowledge Economic Index
    Knowledge Economic Index
    The Knowledge Indexes were designed as an interactive tool for benchmarking a country's position vis-a-vis others in the global knowledge economy. It was created by the World Bank Institute using the Knowledge Assessment Methodology -Knowledge Index:...

  • Knowledge market
    Knowledge market
    A knowledge market is a mechanism for distributing knowledge resources. There are two views on knowledge and how knowledge markets can function. One view uses a legal construct of intellectual property to make knowledge a typical scarce resource, so the traditional commodity market mechanism can be...

  • Knowledge organization
    Knowledge organization
    The term knowledge organization designates a field of study related to Library and Information Science . In this meaning, KO is about activities such as document description, indexing and classification performed in libraries, databases, archives etc...

  • Knowledge management
    Knowledge management
    Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...


  • Knowledge policy
    Knowledge policy
    Policies are the paradigms of government and all bureaucracies. Policies provide a context of rules and methods to guide how large organizations meet their responsibilities. Organizational knowledge policies describe the institutional aspects of knowledge creation, management, and use within the...

  • Knowledge Revolution
    Knowledge Revolution
    The knowledge revolution refers to a global-scale paradigm shift that many compare to the agricultural and industrial revolutions. The revolution is about a fundamental socioeconomic change from adding value by producing things which is, ultimately limited, to adding value by creating and using...

  • Knowledge tagging
  • Knowledge value chain
    Knowledge value chain
    A knowledge value chain is a sequence of intellectual tasks by which knowledge workers build their employer's unique competitive advantage and/or social and environmental benefit...

  • Learning economy
    Learning economy
    Modern economies can be characterised as learning economies in which knowledge is the crucial resource and learning is the most important process. Different kinds of learning and economically relevant types of knowledge can likewise be identified. It is argued that pure market economies, if such...

  • Learning society
    Learning society
    Learning society is an educational philosophy advocated by the OECD and UNESCO that positions education as the key to a nation’s economic development, and holds that education should extend beyond formal learning into informal learning centres to support a knowledge economy Learning society is an...

  • Liverpool Knowledge Quarter
    Liverpool Knowledge Quarter
    The "Knowledge Quarter" in Liverpool, England is a modern term in business given to the vicinity of Liverpool City Centre that focuses heavily on the education, knowledge and research sectors....

  • The Long Tail
    The Long Tail
    The Long Tail or long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a 'normal' or Gaussian distribution...

  • Network economy
    Network Economy
    The network economy is the emerging economic order within the information society. The name stems from a key attribute - products and services are created and value is added through social networks operating on large or global scales...

  • Smart city
    Smart City
    Urban performance currently depends not only on the city's endowment of hard infrastructure , but also, and increasingly so, on the availability and quality of knowledge communication and social infrastructure ....

  • Social information processing
    Social Information Processing
    Social Information Processing is "an activity through which collective human actions organize knowledge." It is the creation and processing of information by a group of people...



External links

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