ABSTRACT
This chapter is focused on introducing and presenting the essential characteristics of the present context in which companies, stakeholders, and social responsibility operate. The essential elements, referring to the transition and features of a knowledge-based economy (knowledge revolution, knowledge main characteristics and roles, concept and features of knowledge-based economy), are presented in the first part. It continues with the digital revolution, digital economy, and the relationship between the digital/digitalized economy and the knowledge-based economy. The third part of the chapter approaches the knowledge-based company, the essential component of the knowledge-based economy, and the business ecosystem, the new and performative structure of the new economy. Finally, pointed out are the main challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic versus the entire economy and its components.
Elements from this chapter are very necessary in order to understand and take into consideration the new contextual requirements and opportunities faced by company management and its internal and external stakeholders to valorize the huge potential of knowledge and digitalization at a higher level.
