A study of validation of performance measures in the context of Singapore's knowledge-based economy.

Abstract

Today’s economy faces enormous challenges posed by globalisation, technological developments and aggressive growth strategies. This drives economies to find ways in sustaining their competitiveness levels and accelerating growth; such as through increasing investments in key areas being innovation, entrepreneurship, research & development, information and communication technologies (ICT) and educated workforce. These are distinctive characteristics of a knowledge-based economy (KBE)and how much these efforts are contributing to the rise of a strong KBE is still not quantifiable. This is deepened by issues of not having an internationally recognised framework to value, validate, assess and measure an economy’s KBE progression. This study is exploratory in nature and attempts to validate the measurement indicators recommended by previous research efforts of Fong (2005) and apply these indicators in assessing Singapore’s KBE progression in comparison with selected countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea and US.