Communication and Knowledge: How is the knowledge base of an economy constructed?

TL;DR

This paper explores how the knowledge base of an economy is constructed through complex network interactions among universities, industry, and government, affecting innovation, wealth, and institutional arrangements.

Contribution

It introduces a method to measure the knowledge infrastructure using mutual information across university-industry-government relations, highlighting globalization effects.

Findings

Mutual information indicates increased globalization of the knowledge base.

Patent data and Internet data show similar trends in knowledge network development.

The knowledge infrastructure influences economic competitiveness and innovation dynamics.

Abstract

The competitive advantages in a knowledge-based economy can no longer be attributed to single nodes in the network. Political economies are increasingly reshaped by knowledge-based developments that upset market equilibria and institutional arrangements. The network coordinates the subdynamics of (i) wealth production, (ii) organized novelty production, and (iii) private appropriation versus public control. The interaction terms generate a complex dynamics which cannot be expected to contain central coordination. However, the knowledge infrastructure of systems of innovations can be measured, for example, in terms of university-industry-government relations. The mutual information in these three dimensions indicates the globalization of the knowledge base. Patent statistics and data from the Internet are compared in terms of this indicator.