Geopolitics of the knowledge-based economy
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BOOK REVIEW
Geopolitics of the knowledge-based economy Sami Moisio Routledge, New York, 2018, 182 pp. ISBN: 978-1138821996
Reviewed by Tiina Ritvala1 and Rebecca Piekkari1 1
School of Business, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
Journal of International Business Studies (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00369-z
‘‘Past states wanted to grow their territory, crops, gold, and armies. Today the most valuable things which democratic governments want to grow are intangible: like trust, happiness, knowledge, capabilities, norms, or confident institutions. These grow in very different ways to agriculture or warfare. Trust creates trust… Knowledge breeds new knowledge…Much of modern strategy is about setting these virtuous circles in motion.’’ – Geoff Mulgan, former Director of Policy under British Prime Minister Tony Blair (cited in Moisio, 2018: 2)
At the heart of political geographer Sami Moisio’s award winning book1 is, as the above quotation encapsulates, an analysis of the implications of economies shifting their basis for competition from tangible natural resources to intangible knowledge resources. This knowledge-based approach to 21st century capitalism highlights the role of cities. Knowledge-based economies are increasingly centered around highly connected global cities and mega-regions that function as ‘‘epicenters of national productivity, innovation, prosperity, wealth and competitiveness’’ (p. 157). These global cities are dependent on the nation-states in which they are situated – just as nation-states are dependent on them. In this way, the knowledge-based approach complements mainstream international business (IB) research, which is still based on a view that nation-states are the key drivers of economic development. The perspective adopted in this book will not be entirely new for the readers of this journal, since modern IB theory, starting with Buckley and Casson (1976), Rugman (1981) and Hennart (1982) largely builds on the knowledge-based strengths of internationally operating firms. JIBS has also published a large number of articles on the importance of institutions positioned above and below the country level. However, IB scholars, by the very nature of the subject matter they study (cross border economic activities), tend to be more exposed to ideas of economic geography than to other subfields of human geography, which adopt more sociological, political and ideological approaches to questions of space, place and location. As a political geographer, Moisio is able to draw on a source of insights and inspiration not found in IB, inviting us to rethink how we conceptualize the contexts in which contemporary international business takes place (Lindebaum, Pe´rezts &
Book review
Andersson, 2018). It represents an outside-in perspective on government relationships that are becoming increasingly relevant in the age of deglobalization (Witt, 2019). The central aim and theme of the book are to conceptualize the ‘geopolitical’ in the context of the knowledge-based economy. Building on the noti
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