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<meta content="In recent years public policies for science, technology and innovation have attracted increased attention as a result of claims that knowledge-intensive industries are now at the core of growth, and that we are now entering a completely new form of 'knowledge society'. The objectives of this paper are firstly to examine what various authors mean by the concept of a knowledge economy or learning economy; secondly to describe quantitatively the creation and use of knowledge across industries; thirdly to develop an approach to understanding the knowledge intensity of mature, 'traditional' or low-technology industries. In exploring this issue, the paper first uses Community Innovation Survey data to describe some empirical dimensions of knowledge creation in Europe. It shows that knowledge investments are economy wide, not confined to high-tech sectors, and not confined to R&D. The paper then turns to concepts and a methodology for mapping the knowledge base of an economic activity. The aim is to generate a more nuanced understanding of the meaning of 'knowledge intensity' in production. The approach rests on what the paper terms 'distributed knowledge bases' that have a systemic and institutionally diffuse location. Knowledge for many key activities is distributed among agents, institutions and knowledge fields, and the problem is to understand the embodied and disembodied knowledge flows between them. An empirical example of such knowledge bases is described, for the food processing industry. The paper concludes by discussing how such 'distributed knowledge bases' might affect our conceptions of the knowledge economy and suggests links to current policy challenges in both developed and developing economies." name="eprints.abstract" />
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9502 New Technologies, Scale and Scope, and Location of Production in Developing Countries. By Ludovico Alcorta, March 1995.
9501 Intellectual Property Protection, Market Orientation and Location of Overseas R&D Activities by Multinational Enterprises. By Nagesh Kumar, March 1995.
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9509 Innovation Systems and Technological Specialisation in Latin America and the Caribbean. By Ludovico Alcorta and Wilson Peres, October 1995.
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9516 Changing Character of Foreign Direct Investment from Developing Countries: Case Studies from Asia. By Nagesh Kumar, December 1995.
9602 Multinational Enterprises, New Technologies and Export-Oriented Industrialisation in Developing Countries: Trends and Prospects. By Nagesh Kumar, January 1996.
9605 Toward an Analytical Framework for National Innovation Systems. By Gu Shulin, April 1996.
9604 EST (Environmentally Sound Technologies) from the West - Asymmetry, Regimes and Polish Policy Implementation. By Mikael Sandberg, April 1996.
9703 Technology Acquisition, De-regulation and Competitiveness: A Study of Indian Automobile Industry. By Krishnan. Narayanan, September 1997.
9606 Foreign Direct Investments and Technology Transfers in Development: A Perspective on Recent Literature. By Nagesh Kumar, August 1996.
9707 Inter-Firm Technological Cupertino Effects of Absorptive Capacity, Firm-Size and Specialisation. By Frederico Rocha, December 1997.
9706 Technology Trends in Pollution-Intensive Industries: A Review of Sectoral Trends. By Anthony Bartzokas and Masaru Yarime, December 1997." name="eprints.referencetext" />
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<meta content="In recent years public policies for science, technology and innovation have attracted increased attention as a result of claims that knowledge-intensive industries are now at the core of growth, and that we are now entering a completely new form of 'knowledge society'. The objectives of this paper are firstly to examine what various authors mean by the concept of a knowledge economy or learning economy; secondly to describe quantitatively the creation and use of knowledge across industries; thirdly to develop an approach to understanding the knowledge intensity of mature, 'traditional' or low-technology industries. In exploring this issue, the paper first uses Community Innovation Survey data to describe some empirical dimensions of knowledge creation in Europe. It shows that knowledge investments are economy wide, not confined to high-tech sectors, and not confined to R&D. The paper then turns to concepts and a methodology for mapping the knowledge base of an economic activity. The aim is to generate a more nuanced understanding of the meaning of 'knowledge intensity' in production. The approach rests on what the paper terms 'distributed knowledge bases' that have a systemic and institutionally diffuse location. Knowledge for many key activities is distributed among agents, institutions and knowledge fields, and the problem is to understand the embodied and disembodied knowledge flows between them. An empirical example of such knowledge bases is described, for the food processing industry. The paper concludes by discussing how such 'distributed knowledge bases' might affect our conceptions of the knowledge economy and suggests links to current policy challenges in both developed and developing economies." name="DC.description" />
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<h1 class="ep_tm_pagetitle">What is the 'Knowledge Economy'? Knowledge intensity and distributed knowledge bases</h1>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><span class="person_name">Smith, Keith</span> (2002) <xhtml:em>What is the 'Knowledge Economy'? Knowledge intensity and distributed knowledge bases.</xhtml:em> Discussion Paper. United Nations Univeristy, Institute for New Technologies, Maastricht, The Netherlands.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"></p><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1603' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1235/1/2002-6.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1603' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1603"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1235/thumbnails/1/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1235/1/2002-6.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />230Kb</td></tr></table><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block">Official URL: <a href="http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/redir.pl?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.intech.unu.edu%252Fpublications%252Fdiscussion-papers%252F2002-6.pdf;h=repec:dgr:unuint:200206">http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/redir.pl?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.intech.unu.edu%2Fpublications%2Fdiscussion-papers%2F2002-6.pdf;h=repec:dgr:unuint:200206</a></p><div class="not_ep_block"><h2>Abstract</h2><p style="padding-bottom: 16px; text-align: left; margin: 1em auto 0em auto">In recent years public policies for science, technology and innovation have attracted increased attention as a result of claims that knowledge-intensive industries are now at the core of growth, and that we are now entering a completely new form of 'knowledge society'. The objectives of this paper are firstly to examine what various authors mean by the concept of a knowledge economy or learning economy; secondly to describe quantitatively the creation and use of knowledge across industries; thirdly to develop an approach to understanding the knowledge intensity of mature, 'traditional' or low-technology industries. In exploring this issue, the paper first uses Community Innovation Survey data to describe some empirical dimensions of knowledge creation in Europe. It shows that knowledge investments are economy wide, not confined to high-tech sectors, and not confined to R&D. The paper then turns to concepts and a methodology for mapping the knowledge base of an economic activity. The aim is to generate a more nuanced understanding of the meaning of 'knowledge intensity' in production. The approach rests on what the paper terms 'distributed knowledge bases' that have a systemic and institutionally diffuse location. Knowledge for many key activities is distributed among agents, institutions and knowledge fields, and the problem is to understand the embodied and disembodied knowledge flows between them. An empirical example of such knowledge bases is described, for the food processing industry. The paper concludes by discussing how such 'distributed knowledge bases' might affect our conceptions of the knowledge economy and suggests links to current policy challenges in both developed and developing economies.</p></div><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" cellpadding="3" class="not_ep_block" border="0"><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Item Type:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Report (Discussion Paper)</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Keywords:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Public Policy; Learning Economy; Knowledge; Technology Transfer</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Subjects:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/360201.html">360000 Policy and Political Science > 360200 Policy and Administration > 360201 Public Policy</a><br /><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/340100.html">340000 Economics > 340100 Economic Theory</a><br /><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/340200.html">340000 Economics > 340200 Applied Economics</a></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ID Code:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">1235</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited By:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><span class="ep_name_citation"><span class="person_name">Miss Alexandra Lejda</span></span></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited On:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">28 Jun 2007</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Last Modified:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">09 Jan 2008 02:30</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ePrint Statistics:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a target="ePrintStats" href="/es/index.php?action=show_detail_eprint;id=1235;">View statistics for this ePrint</a></td></tr></table><p align="right">Repository Staff Only: <a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/users/home?screen=EPrint::View&eprintid=1235">item control page</a></p>
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