The report marks the half-way stage in The Work Foundation's three-year, £1.5 million research programme into the knowledge economy. It argues that the phenomenon of the knowledge economy is driven by the demand for higher value-added goods and services created by more sophisticated, more discerning and better educated consumers and businesses. These pressures have interacted with both technology and globalisation, accelerating the process of change and enabling new and disruptive patterns of supplying consumers.