Abstract:

The rapid transformation of the modern economies reveals the significance of knowledge, innovation and technology for economic growth. In Europe, the Lisbon Strategy set the very ambitious goal to “become the more competitive knowledge economy in the world by 2010” Besides public policies, the development of the knowledge economy requires the educational reform with respect to the programs and processes. Universities are forced to prepare graduates for the new environment by cultivating skills and competences relevant to the needs of the knowledge economy. This paper focuses on the requirements of the emerging knowledge economy and attempts to outline an educational model for the knowledge economy. To this end, the paper takes into consideration the anticipated needs of the knowledge economy and analyzes the structure and content of current educational programs of the top European Business Schools focusing on the knowledge economy. The analysis reveals that the top European Business Schools seem to disregard to a certain degree the knowledge economy, which may explain partially the reason that it seems to fail.