Embracing the Knowledge Economy: The Dynamic Transformation of the Finnish Innovation System (New Horizons in the Economics of Innovation)

Book Description
Globalization, new technologies and evolving organizational and management models pose a significant challenge to industrialized countries. Instead of relying on the traditional techno-organizational paradigm, they have had to search for new development paths to ensure further growth and social welfare. Finland is one of the few nations that has been able to meet this challenge successfully and, as such, can be regarded as a model case study from which other countries can learn how to manage this fundamental transition process. In an astonishingly short period of time, Finland has developed into one of the world’s leading knowledge societies while retaining a comprehensive welfare state. The book traces this rapid transformation from a resource-based to a knowledge-based society. The authors describe the country’s strengths and weaknesses in the new economy and demonstrate how Finland has been able to catch-up with the leading industrial countries by exploiting new techno-organizational opportunities. Experts from different fields provide rich empirical material on Finnish industries, firms, regions and institutions, and the role they have played in the transformation process. The book also details the business and economic restructuring which was required, and explores new trends in the country’s science, technology and innovation policy. Embracing the Knowledge Economy offers a comprehensive appraisal of the management of Finland’s transition to a knowledge society. Business managers, policymakers and scholars in the fields of institutional economics, innovation management and political science will welcome this coherent description of Finland’s successful search for a new development path.

About the Author
Edited by Gerd Schienstock, Research Professor and Scientific Director, Work Research Centre, University of Tampere, Finlan


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Finnish economists with universities, private institutions, and government provide a broad but not comprehensive view of the Finnish Innovation System, which they admit is rather a vague concept. After setting out the conceptual aspects, they analyze technological innovation at the levels of industries and firms, regions and institutions, and the country as a whole. Their point is not to present the Finnish model as one that can be applied widely, noting that even the highly touted German and Japanese models have failed to take root outside their own birthplaces, but to document another example. The study emerged largely from a research project of The Finnish National Fund for Research and Development. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


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