Abstract:

In the current economy, knowledge is an essential component of economic and social systems. Knowledge-based economy rely heavily on economic processes depending on generation, sale, purchase, storage, use and protection of knowledge because it is decisive in profit making and strategic competitiveness. As the barriers to accessing global knowledge are fading, knowledge and skills are becoming increasingly key to competitiveness, both locally and globally. Even in traditional economic sectors ‒ agriculture and manufacturing ‒ knowledge is more easily and quickly accessible globally, and thus their value is increased competitive. So, currently economic landscape experience several transformation related to knowledge: a) Knowledge becomes the focus of the purchase, sale and production processes. This becomes evident when we have in mind the annual amount spent on marketing, amount of R&D expenses globally etc. b) Knowledge assets have become more important than financial or material and technical assets. Many types of companies - advertising agencies, consulting firms, design centers, tourist agencies, IT companies etc. possess very few physical assets, but their value come from their brands and knowledge bases they developed. c) Capitalization of knowledge and intellectual capital requires a new terminology, new methods and management techniques, new technologies, and - not least - new strategies. Most current managerial approaches are based (Drucker, 1994) on a business model centered on natural resources, which has become irrelevant