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Competitiveness, the Knowledge-Based Economy and Higher Education

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  • Ngai-Ling Sum
  • Bob Jessop

Abstract

This article explores the appeal of the economic narratives of globalisation, competitiveness, and the knowledge-based economy and the impact of the economic and extra-economic tendencies that they both construe and help to construct with special reference to higher education. The argument develops in five steps: First, it analyses the socially constructed nature of competitiveness, exemplifying this from the influential account of Michael Porter and his Harvard Business School associates; second, it shows how the ‘knowledge-based economy’ (or KBE) concept developed as a scientific paradigm and policy paradigm in the context of the crisis of Fordism and how it has influenced public discourse on educational reform; third, it reviews how Porterian propositions on competitiveness have been translated into a ‘knowledge brand’ that is promoted by academic–guru–consultants and relayed through research centres, policy networks, and advisory services; fourth, it explores how the KBE is being re-contextualised in part in terms of ‘knowledge and higher education clusters’, ‘knowledge hubs’, etc., and their role in competitiveness; and fifth, it notes some implications of these economic imaginaries, governmental technologies, and emergent modes of growth for higher education. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Ngai-Ling Sum & Bob Jessop, 2013. "Competitiveness, the Knowledge-Based Economy and Higher Education," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 4(1), pages 24-44, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:4:y:2013:i:1:p:24-44
    DOI: 10.1007/s13132-012-0121-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Meir Russ, 2017. "The Trifurcation of the Labor Markets in the Networked, Knowledge-Driven, Global Economy," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(2), pages 672-703, June.
    3. Sotiropoulou, Irene & Deutz, Pauline, 2021. "Understanding the bioeconomy: a new sustainability economy in British and European public discourse," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 10(4), December.
    4. Iwona Bąk & Katarzyna Wawrzyniak & Maciej Oesterreich, 2022. "Competitiveness of the Regions of the European Union in a Sustainable Knowledge-Based Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-22, March.
    5. Saleh Alkhodhair & Ahmed Alsanad & Khaled Alghathbar & Abdu Gumaei, 2020. "Key Quality Attributes for Computational and Sustainable Higher Education Strategy Implementation in Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Patrick O’Keeffe, 2018. "Creating a governable reality: analysing the use of quantification in shaping Australian wheat marketing policy," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(3), pages 553-567, September.
    7. Gratiela Georgiana Noja & Alexandru Buglea & Ion Lala-Popa & Cecilia Nicoleta Jurcut, 2021. "The interplay between knowledge-based competitiveness, people’s good health and well-being: new empirical evidence from Central and Eastern European countries," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 441-466, April.
    8. Lacatus Maria Liana & Grigore George-Eduard, 2021. "The matching process and the implications of the competitive market system," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 15(1), pages 139-149, December.
    9. Laura Porak, 2021. "Governing the Ungovernable - Recontextualizations of 'Competition' in European Policy Discourse," ICAE Working Papers 126, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    10. Laura Porak, 2020. "Der 'groesste Trumpf' Europas - Eine Analyse des ‘economic imaginary’ der Europaeischen Kommission," ICAE Working Papers 118, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    11. Christian Corsi & Antonio Prencipe, 2018. "The Contribution of University Spin-Offs to the Competitive Advantage of Regions," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(2), pages 473-499, June.
    12. Ahmed A. ElObeidy, 2014. "Retracted: Knowledge-based economy in Arab countries: between Silicon Valley and Phosphate Gully," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(3), pages 309-309, August.
    13. Marcin Baron, 2021. "Open Innovation Capacity of the Polish Universities," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(1), pages 73-95, March.
    14. Abbas Bazargan & Mohammad Eftekhar Ardebili & Mohammad Zarei & Rohollah Ghasemi, 2017. "The Relationship Between ‘Higher Education and Training’ and ‘Business Sophistication’," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 21(2), pages 319-341, Spring.
    15. Voxi Heinrich Amavilah & Antonio Rodríguez Andrés, 2024. "Knowledge Economy and the Economic Performance of African Countries: A Seemingly Unrelated and Recursive Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 110-143, March.

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