The New Economy - Knowledge Investments - Enterprises intangible investments - the new source of growth

Abstract

Economic-based growth is increasingly becoming dependent on the wide range of intangible investments, known as knowledge-based capital (KBC) investments. Its rapid asset size growth has called for transparency in the various components that embodies KBC investments in order to gain greater knowledge concerning their structure. As economies approach the requirements of becoming defined as a developed economy, their capital investments rate decreases while KBC investment components such as knowledge, software, organisation and competence skills increases. There are recorded cases where intangible investment has outgrown capital investments such machinery and equipment, thus the growing importance for the interpretation of KBC investments in order to aid policymakers to ease the transition of the emerging knowledge-based economy. The purpose of this thesis is to explore and increase the comprehension concerning the field of- and the various components that are associated to KBC investments. With the accumulated knowledge the study aims to identify and create a measurement for the various components that are defined as KBC investments in order to give a glimpse into the new economy of Sweden. Moreover, an objective of this study is to assess the potential contribution of KBC investments to the labour productivity for Swedish firms. The fundamental results of the investigation is obtained through multiple surveys created by Statistics Sweden. The targeted population is represented by enterprises that together represent the Swedish economy. Thus the result represents descriptive information from the enterprises perspective. The main conclusion of this thesis was that there is a weak indication of positive contribution of KBC investment to labour productivity. Further, there are branch of industries where the relationship between the KBC investments and labour productivity are stronger, hence the interaction effect. Unfortunately, more data collected over time is needed and crucial to determine if the contribution is consistent, and if the relation between KBC investments and labour productivity is significant and therefore be included in the production function. Accumulating data across different time points will illustrate the progression of the KBC investments the Swedish economy. The study is financed by Statistics Sweden.