Sociedade, Tecnologia e Inovação Empresarial - Presidente da ...

Some preliminary evidence for this lagging pattern was presented inthe recent Communication «Towards a common research area» and inmy own contribution prepared for the Portuguese presidency of theEuropean Union.Towards a Knowledge-Driven SocietyOver the last decades there has been a growing recognition amongstsocial scientists and policy makers about the renewed importance ofknowledge creation for growth and welfare. The concept of knowledgewhile broader and to some extent less precise than previousnotions of technological change encompasses a much wider set of efficiencyimprovements and learning features. In doing so it brings alsotogether aspects of the creation of new knowledge, its improvementas well as the many forms of transfer and diffusion of knowledge. Indoing so the notion of knowledge broadens the concept of technologicalchange, as approximated e.g. through industrial Research andDevelopment expenditures, from industrial activities towards serviceactivities; from the production towards the consumption sphere; fromimprovements or the creation of new products towards improvementsor new forms in organisation and distribution; from embodiment innew or improved machines or other capital equipment towards newor improved skills or human capital. Knowledge impacts, in other words,all spheres of society. But, knowledge is of course not a new concept.Its importance for economic growth was at the core of much philosophicaland economic thinking and writing of the late 18th and 19thCentury. One only has to think of the importance given to knowledgeby classical economists such as Smith, Marx or more recently Schumpeter,to realize that economists, just as historians have always beenaware of the crucial importance of knowledge accumulation for longterm wealth and economic, social and cultural welfare. What appearsnew are a number of things. For simplicity we would group theseunder four headings: financial and economic recognition of the valueto knowledge generation; the new possibilities for the codification ofLuc Soete2 8 7Europe and national technology policies…