Doing Business in the Knowledge-based Economy: Facts and Policy Challenges

This volume was prepared by a select group of international experts in response to a need expressed by the Canadian government to identify and analyze some of the major challenges facing governments in conducting business in the knowledge-based economy. Special emphasis is placed on identifying the policy issues which governments will need to address in the upcoming years. It presents essays in three primary categories: trends and forces shaping the new reality; re-structuring and re-organizing in a knowledge-based economy, key governance issues in the knowledge-based economy. Part one describes the salient features of the knowledge-based economy: What are its economic underpinnings? What are its technological characteristics? Whereas, in the past, growth was determined primarily by the availability of land, natural resources, labour, and capital, at the end of the 20th century knowledge has become the major factor of economic growth. Part two examines management issues and economic phenomena typical of a knowledge-based economy. What makes new technology adoption and implementation successful? What can government do to make it more successful? Part three is directly focused toward questions of political economy and economic policy considerations, including technical, economic, and societal solutions. The volume concludes with a summary of the new ways in which firms and governments should manage business in a knowledge-based economy.