Knowledge Economy

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 constraints, or to a knowledge-based economy. In the second meaning, more frequently used, it refers to the use of knowledge technologies (such as knowledge engineering and knowledge management ) to produce economic benefits. The phrase was popularized if not invented by Peter Drucker as the title of Chapter 12 in his book The Age of Discontinuity[1].
The essential difference is that in a knowledge economy, knowledge is a product, in 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, software engineers, mathematicians, chemists, 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". 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 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.[citation needed]
References
1. ^ Peter Drucker, (1969). The Age of Discontinuity; Guidelines to Our Changing Society. Harper and Row, New York. ISBN 0-465-08984-4
2. ^ Terry Flew (2008), New Media: An Introduction
Arthur, W. B. (1996). Increasing Returns and the New World of Business. Harvard Business Review(July/August), 100-109.
Bell, D. (1974). The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. London: Heinemann.
Drucker, P. (1969). The Age of Discontinuity; Guidelines to Our changing Society. New York: Harper and Row.
Drucker, P. (1993). Post-Capitalist Society. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Machlup, F. (1962). The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Romer, P. M. (1986). Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth. Journal of Political Economy, 94(5), 1002-1037.
Rooney, D., Hearn, G., Mandeville, T., & Joseph, R. (2003). Public Policy in Knowledge-Based Economies: Foundations and Frameworks. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Rooney, D., Hearn, G., & Ninan, A. (2005). Handbook on the Knowledge Economy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.