Knowledge economy leaders, runner-ups and laggards: a study of 140 countries

Knowledge has outperformed traditional resources of land, labour and capital. Knowledge has emerged as the key resource for companies and countries as it is costly to acquire, provides highest returns and leads to sustainable competitive advantage. Countries vary in their knowledge resources and economic performance. This research note is an attempt to identify the group of countries out of 140 countries, for whom data is available, at some level on knowledge economy parameters. Using cluster analysis, the research note identifies three groups of countries and classifies them as knowledge economy leaders consisting of 40 countries; runner-ups consisting of 50 countries; and, laggards consisting of 48 countries. The emerging markets fall mainly in runner-ups and laggards category. These countries need to invest in the knowledge resources to become leading economies of future as widely projected.