to offer better marketing opportunities and after-sales services. As a result, these factors are seen as major contributors to increased productivity and economic growth. Criteria for economic success Drivers behind the conceptual economy, can be categorised into the following areas: Scholarship Educational institutions need to place more emphasis on creativity and the arts rather than on traditional qualifications in the areas of engineering and management. In particular, more attention needs to be devoted to basic literacy, analytical and critical thinking, synthesis and quantitative skills: Creativity and artistry Until now, information technology has had considerable impact on the economy. Increasingly, success will depend on how to make use of the knowledge and information that has emerged. Here qualities such as intuition, creativity and game-based approaches will become ever more important. Cultural and technical diversity Prosperity and competitiveness in the 21st century will depend on an understanding of diverse national cultures and how to draw on their ideas in order to assist the innovation process. Here too, there will be a need for more extensive teamwork, creativity and leading-edge thinking, all in the context of the global economy. See also Computer-aided manufacturing Creative industries Knowledge economy Cognitive-cultural economy New product development Globalization Cognitive robotics Information Age Imagination age Bibliography Friedman, Thomas L.: The World Is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005, 488 p., Kelley, Tom, and Littman, Jonathan: The ten faces of innovation: IDEO’s strategies for beating the devil’s advocate & driving creativity throughout your organization, New York: Currency/Doubleday, c2005, 273 p., Pink, Daniel H.: A Whole New Mind : moving from the information age to the conceptual age, New York: Riverhead Books, 2005, 260 p., Rooney, David, Hearn, Greg, Ninan, Abraham: Handbook on the knowledge economy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2005, 290 p. Footnotes Economics catchphrases Creativity Cultural economics Economic globalization Economy by field