Managing the knowledge asset: America's competitive challenge

The American Economy may still be ridiag on economic legacies that are either outmoded or ill-suited to affect the contemporary competitive environment. One legacy is the managerial dependence of scientific management principles; another is a continued belief in the linear concept of science-driven technology. A second theme discussed in this article is the belief that firms must conceptualize outcomes of their operations. Achieving them will then better focus technological research agendas as well as the need to treat management itself as a technology. Finally, the article suggests that the phenomenon of consortia may be one of the most important economic experiments of the latter part of the century. The potential and pragmatic influence of the consortia is considered and its potential is suggested as problematic.