Every successful economy must constantly improve and pay increased attention to key areas. These can ensure sustainability and improve the country’s position in a competitive environment. Competitiveness, knowledge, and research and development are the priorities of every country today. However, more than the current position of the country, it is necessary to take into account the long-term sustainability of these areas to build a strong and sustainable economy.

In today’s world, sustainability issues are becoming increasingly urgent. Among the different approaches to defining this concept, a common attribute is future orientation. The economy of sustainability is usually based on the idea of resource efficiency. As a sustainable economy is about a long-term future, which is largely unknown, questions about the knowledge that can ensure the country’s long-term stability and growth need to be answered.

The knowledge economy is not just a new theoretical concept, but a new epoch, which has a fundamental difference from the era of agrarian and industrial economies. Although it appeared only in the early 1990s, it has already had an impact and caused changes in all spheres of economic and social life, and this influence is constantly growing.

World Markets Seek Knowledge Base 

Countries face constant changes in scientific and technical development, but there are also new modern trends in the way they do business. Every participant in this global market is forced to adapt its activities to these rapid changes. Countries strive to increase their level of development depending on the available resources. Resources are a means of achieving development, but, as most resources are limited, they should also be used in the context of meeting the needs of future generations. In most countries today, the process of sustainable development is well in line with the process of developing the knowledge economy. To achieve the appropriate changes, the two processes need to be harmonized. The attention is focused on the mutual influences and overall impacts on the country of these main research areas: knowledge-based economy, competitiveness, and sustainability.

The importance of the economic dimension of sustainability is also undeniable in today’s globalized world; therefore, this document is focused on the economic component of sustainability. In particular, the economic aspect of sustainability addresses the issue of the development of performance as well as the standard of living. Improving sustainability performance can affect a country’s competitiveness. It is therefore necessary to ensure not only suitable conditions but also suitable resources for sustainable economic growth. Education, an educated population, and knowledge are likely to lead to the availability of appropriate resources in the future. Many studies show that the transition to a knowledge-based economy through the introduction of innovation significantly increases a country’s performance as well as living standards. Innovations are an important determinant of sustainable competitiveness and the growth of the knowledge economy. They are a fundamental factor in progress in the social, environmental, and economic fields.

The way in which individual economies respond to these challenges also has a major impact on their sustainable growth and position in the world’s economy. In an effort to better understand the relationships among sustainability, competitiveness, and the knowledge economy, a conceptual framework was also defined for our research. EU countries clearly defined their approach to this issue in the Europe 2020 strategy, one of the objectives of which is to achieve a sustainable future and sustainable growth. The question remains as to how successfully individual EU countries are achieving this convergence. From a conceptual point of view, this work seeks to explain and examine the interrelationship of the impact of the knowledge economy on the competitiveness of the economy, which is reflected in the economic dimension of achieving results for sustainability in individual EU countries. However, it should be noted that the achievement of the sustainable development goals of individual countries must be fulfilled in the context of the necessary interconnections among all three dimensions in order to achieve balance.

Indicators of the Knowledge Economy

The World Bank talks about the pillars of the knowledge-based economy. It defines four basic pillars:

• A supportive economic and institutional mechanism that provides an incentive scheme to make better use of existing information and generate new knowledge in business;
• An educated and qualified population that generates and uses new knowledge;
• A dynamic information infrastructure for the communication, dissemination, and processing of information; and
• An effective system of innovation for businesses, research centers, and universities to generate new knowledge

The current global business environment is shaped by the transition to a knowledge economy, which has moved the competitiveness of business activities to a completely different level. As the issue of the knowledge economy is a fundamental determinant of the economic development of individual economies, its level is considered to be an important indicator in the context of comparing world economies.

Conclusion Keynotes

Maintaining global competitiveness has been one of the main challenges facing countries around the world in recent years. At first, the countries of the European Union sought to achieve this goal through the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy. However, this proved to be very challenging, and, therefore, this goal was subsequently strengthened in the Europe 2020 strategy. The Europe 2020 strategy also aims to improve sustainable growth, environmental protection, and social cohesion. This strategy confirms that the European Union wants to achieve the sustainable development of the EU countries’ economies. There are three priorities of Europe 2020:

• Smart growth, which is based on the development of the economy using knowledge and innovation;
• Sustainable growth, through more efficient use of resources; and
• Inclusive growth that supports a high-employment economy with consequent economic, social and territorial cohesion