Despite nearly fifty-eight years since the term knowledge economy first appears, we are getting nearer in understanding this new kind of economy. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the meaning of the knowledge economy by conducting a critical review of the precursors of the knowledge economy and their major critiques so as to identify the current research implications. We aim to identify common ground in advancing the research of the knowledge economy. In essence, our understanding of the knowledge economy is viewed from a ‘new’ social-economic-theoretical perspective in which the theoretical foundation focuses on the explosion of technology that motivates people to be innovative and possess knowledge in producing knowledge products or be so engrossed with sociability using technology at home. Our finding is that the notion of the knowledge economy must be viewed from some phenomena that have transformed the contemporary economy. Other major findings include the following: (1) we use the term knowledge economy instead of the multiplicity of terms to describe this new form of economy; (2) we articulate that the theoretical foundation of the knowledge economy is a branch of social economy where the economy is not based solely on production and consumption but is based more on social values, technology, knowledge and innovation to commercialize knowledge products; and (3) the statistical assessment methodology is delivered through the use of indicators to proxy for the four knowledge economy criteria that makes up the knowledge economy. This has the following implications for economic management, knowledge-induced innovation, computerization of the economy, and knowledge management in the new economy.

尽管自知识经济一词以来已有近58年的历史第一次出现时，我们越来越了解这种新型的经济。本文的目的是通过对知识经济的先驱及其主要批判进行批判性审查，以阐明知识经济的含义，从而确定当前的研究意义。我们旨在确定在推进知识经济研究中的共同点。从本质上讲，我们对知识经济的理解是从“新的”社会经济学理论角度来进行的，其中理论基础集中在技术的爆炸式增长上，这种技术激励人们在生产知识产品或如此投入时进行创新并拥有知识。与在家中使用技术的社交能力。我们的发现是，必须从一些已经改变了当代经济的现象中看待知识经济的概念。其他主要发现包括以下内容：（1）我们使用术语知识经济，而不是用多种术语来描述这种新的经济形式；（2）我们明确指出，知识经济的理论基础是社会经济的一个分支，其中经济不仅仅基于生产和消费，而是更多地基于社会价值，技术，知识和创新来使知识产品商业化；（3）通过使用指标替代构成知识经济的四个知识经济标准来提供统计评估方法。这对经济管理，知识诱导的创新，经济的计算机化以及新经济中的知识管理具有以下含义。