Analysing Knowledge-Based Growth: Going Beyond Innovation

Today, the most technologically advanced economies have utilised knowledge as a key factor in production by developing initiatives that encourage continuous innovation for sustainable growth. However, the fruits of innovation are dependent on regional contextual factors that go beyond innovation per se. Regions that have successfully created and leveraged their innovation capacities have leveraged their favourable social contexts to support their growth. In this exploratory study, the author reviewed literature to define the knowledge economy for empirical analysis. He further analysed economic data on U.S. metropolitan regions from 2003 to 2008 to provide evidence in support of this argument. The findings suggest that industry innovation measures alone are not significant predictors of economic growth. The author discusses these findings theoretically and proposes policy implications.

[1]  A. Chandler,et al.  Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 , 1994 .

[2]  P. Romer.  Endogenous Technological Change , 1989, Journal of Political Economy.

[3]  Erik Baark,et al.  INNOVATION POLICY FORENSICS: AN ANALYSIS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN HONG KONG* , 2005 .

[4]  John Houghton,et al.  A Primer on the Knowledge Economy , 2000 .

[5]  A M Russell,et al.  Science and technology. , 1972, Science.

[6]  Richard Florida,et al.  Challenges to technology policy in a changing world , 1998 .

[7]  M. Lessnoff.  Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy , 1979 .

[8]  Lewis M. Branscomb,et al.  Investing in innovation : creating a research and innovation policy that works , 1998 .

[9]  Benjamin Russo,et al.  A Cost-Benefit Analysis of R&D Tax Incentives , 2004 .

[10]  Thomas Burr.  Product Review: Knowledge and Economic Conduct: The Social Foundations of the Modern Economy , 2004 .

[11]  D. Bamber.  The Coming of Post-Industrial Society — A Venture in Social Forecasting , 1980 .

[12]  Benjamin Yeo,et al.  The Call for Transformational Governance in the Knowledge Economy , 2009 .

[13]  E. Mansfield,et al.  The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States. , 1963 .

[14]  Joseph A. Schumpeter,et al.  The Explanation of the Business Cycle , 1927 .

[15]  P. Romer.  Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth , 1986, Journal of Political Economy.

[16]  Steven Brint,et al.  Professionals and the `Knowledge Economy': Rethinking the Theory of Postindustrial Society , 2001 .

[17]  Jim Robinson,et al.  In Search of the Holy Grail: Policy Convergence, Experimentation, and Economic Performance , 2002 .

[18]  B. Godin.  The Knowledge-Based Economy: Conceptual Framework or Buzzword? , 2006 .

[19]  D. Bell.  The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, a venture in Social Forecasting , 1974 .

[20]  T. S. Adams,et al.  National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. , 1920, Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical Association.

[21]  D. Brady,et al.  Studies in Income and Wealth , 1946 .

[22]  J. Saver,et al.  The evolution of technology , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers.

[23]  A. C. Foskett,et al.  The subject approach to information , 1969 .

[24]  H. A. Green,et al.  THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY , 2001 .

[25]  D. Bell.  The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society , 1973 .

[26]  P. Drucker.  The Age of Social Transformation , 1994 .