Finland is known for its consistent progress in the economy and competitiveness, as well as the egalitarian society underneath it. Yet, the challenges experienced by Finland in the beginning of the 20th century were similar to those experienced by many countries today. Finland emerged as an independent nation in the midst of international economic and political turbulence. In spite of its remoteness, relative scarcity of natural resources, smallness of the home market and recent history characterized by wars and social cleavages, Finland transformed itself from an agriculture-based economy in the 1950’s into one of the leading innovation-driven, knowledge-based economies and high-tech producers in the twenty-first century. The development was rapid, and involved determined action and sometimes drastic decisions by the government and other key actors. Today, at the end of 2013, Finland is facing new types of challenges both domestically and internationally in efforts to maintain its societal sustainability and economic competitiveness. Finland Knowledge Economy 2.0 presents some of the key policies, elements, initiatives and decisions behind Finland’s path into the Knowledge Economy of today. The authors hope to provide the readers inspiration, new ideas, and novel insights. Hopefully some of the lessons learned may prove valuable in another context. Based on this account of the development of Finnish Knowledge Economy, the authors have identified six areas of lessons, each described in detail in respective chapters. The book should not be seen as a scientific all encompassing study, but rather as a “Knowledge Economy cook-book”, with practical cases, links and insights provided for further exploration.

In an astonishingly short period of time, Finland has developed into one of the world's leading knowledge societies whilst retaining a comprehensive welfare state. The book traces this rapid transformation from a resource-based to a knowledge-based society. The authors describe the country's strengths and weaknesses in the new economy and demonstrate how Finland has been able to catch-up with the leading industrial countries by exploiting new techno-organizational opportunities. Experts from different fields provide rich empirical material on Finnish industries, firms, regions and institutions, and the role they have played in the transformation process. The book also details the business and economic restructuring which was required, and explores new trends in the country's science, technology and innovation policy.

In the early 1990s, Finland went through watershed developments due to a severe economic recession, during which unemployment rates rose from around 2 percent to over 15 percent and GDP decreased by more than 10 percent. However, in one decade Finland became the most ICT-specialized economy in the world. Three times it has ranked number 1 in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) competitiveness index. It also ranked highest in the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies of learning skills and educational attainment. This paper includes the following headings: introduction; Finland's knowledge economy today; structural changes in the Finnish economy - from agriculture to high-tech; changes in the economic and institutional regimes; innovation and education strategies and policies in Finland; sectoral perspectives on the Finnish knowledge economy -- from forest-related industries to ICT; challenges to the Finnish knowledge economy -- what's ahead; and conclusions and lessons from Finland's knowledge economy for other economies.

Knowledge is fueling economic growth and social development in every region of the world. This book showcases the Finnish experience in the 1990s as an example of how knowledge can become the driving force in economic transformation and growth.

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,0, University of Münster (Political Science), course: European Economic Policies, language: English, abstract: Throughout the course of the 1990s, Finland underwent a tremendous economic transformation unrivaled by any other European or OECD country in the post-World War II era. In less than a decade Finland went from being perhaps one of the least knowledge-based economies to becoming the sole most embraced one, subsequently heralding it to be a model example of not only Europe’s but the world’s ‘new economy’. During the twentieth-first century, Finland has three times to date ranked number one in the World’s Economic Forum’s (WEF) Competitiveness Index, alongside achieving an astonishing close second to Sweden in the World Bank’s Knowledge Economic Index (KEI). On these grounds, Finland’s recent development towards a knowledge-based economy has indeed captured the international spotlight, and justly the attention of economic policy-makers across the world. To this day in age, knowledge has irrefutably become the driving force behind economic growth and social development, with exogenous factors particularly that of globalization playing enormous roles in the acceleration of the diffusion and the application of knowledge. Perhaps, not better put then in the trivial words of Bill Clinton “in today’s knowledge-based economy, what you earn depends on what you learn,”5such words do certainly substantiate the importance of knowledge and innovation in today’s ‘new economy’. Thus is seems, successful economies and societies will be those who can adapt to the rapid demands of globalization, where the need of countries to be more flexible, creative, innovative, and welcoming to the winds of change, have been more critical than it has ever been before. Advancement in information and communication technologies (ICTs) has often been seen as one method of achieving a more knowledge-based economy, as development in ICTs seem to provide new opportunities in product specialization, improved productivity, and sustainable growth.