Why This Book?

In an era of rapid global market expansion, continuous innovations in information and communication technologies, intensified competition and the great digital divide, the capability to secure timely access to actionable knowledge, i.e., the ability to create, organize, leverage and protect intellectual capital resources and to achieve value creation outputs represents a core competency of policy makers, government officials, business leaders and managers (Sveiby, 1997; Steward, 1997; Chan and Mauborgne, 1997; Li-Hua, 2004; Truch, 2004).

At the national level, one of the challenges is to govern knowledge effectively by providing governmental support for the development of a knowledge infrastructure via a conducive legal framework, re-organizing the educational system and setting up institutions to support research and development activities.

A by now famous example is cited in the World Development Report of 1998/99. Ghana and the Republic of Korea started off with almost the same GNP/cap in 1960. Thirty years later the Korean GNP/cap had risen more than six times, the Ghanaian was still hovering at the same level (in 1985 prices). Half the gap could be explained in terms of the "traditional" factor inputs, the other half, according to World Bank experts, was attributed to knowledge as a factor of production (World Bank, 1999).

Knowledge has since been identified as one of the major factors, if not THE crucial factor of development. The idea is, indeed, fascinating. If natural resources are scarce, if foreign direct investment (FDI) does not...