Towards the knowledge economy.
Towards the knowledge economy.
At present, economic activity faces an important transformation process. Although the foundations of this process are multiple, there is a remarkable consensus that attributes the responsibility of this dynamic of change to a triple interaction:
a) a process of technological revolution, led by the investment and mass use of information and communication technologies (TIC / ICT);
b) a dynamic of temporal and spatial expansion of factor and product markets, or globalization process;
c) a new pattern in consumer demand and investment patterns of families and businesses.
In this sense, it can be affirmed that TIC / ICTs, which comprise the convergent set of digital applications of microelectronics, information technology, telecommunications, optoelectronics and recent advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology, are consolidated as technologies of general utility - general purpose technologies - and they become the basic infrastructure of economic activity, from which a new process of industrial revolution is developed.
Indeed, this process of change characterized by network interconnection, by investment, the fall in relative prices and the persistent use of TIC / ICTs, and by the growing presence of information and knowledge flows in the economic sphere, has been agreed to name the process of transition towards the knowledge economy.
The progressive incorporation of knowledge in economic activity has manifested itself in recent years from various perspectives. First, it is worth noting the appearance of a new productive sector, the TIC / ICT sector, a branch of activity dedicated to the production and marketing of goods and services characterized by a new technical property: its offer through the digitalization process.
Additionally, the goods and services of digital production increase their participation in their use as a factor of production in other branches of activity, such as the automobile industry, the chemical and pharmaceutical industry and business services.
On the other hand, the progressive generalization of the knowledge economy is also transforming demand economic activities, with the emergence of new forms of consumption, investment and international relations, basically through the use of electronic commerce practices.