Abstract
It is a fact that today's European economy is strongly impacted by globalization. European firms have the opportunity to go to the global market. In order to be successful and to achieve a local and international development, those companies have to adapt and to reinvent their strategies. The challenge today is not anymore to have the largest plants, the higher number of employees, or the biggest cash flow. The global aim is to get the knowledge in order to optimize all those factors. By controlling the knowledge, firms are able to reduce their costs and to become more efficient and powerful. European authorities are aware of the importance of knowledge to achieve a global goal of growth and prosperity for all European stake holders. That's why the Lisbon Strategy has been decided in 2000. Its aim was to make the Europe the number one knowledge-based economy of the world by 2010. "Be Competitive through innovation" this is what Europe wants; its firms have to do that to compete in the global world. As it's possible to see in that investigation, knowledge is the key for European firms to keep a real competitive advantage in term of innovation. This is true especially because today Europe is under a pressure that comes from emerging countries. In that research paper we develop the idea that, the way that emerging countries can innovate by improving their knowledge performance, is a real threat for European leadership. Compare to the USA, Europe is considered to have a quite different way to deal with globalization and Knowledge management. US individualistic culture leads them to a negative competitive approach of knowledge. In Europe, firms have a better approach of Knowledge management; more consensual. European companies have the ability to share innovation project, even if they are competitors. There is a long way for Europe to become the global Knowledge leader. If European authorities really want to help their firms, they need to stimulate education, research and innovation. Continue to empower European's human capital is a crucial aspect to succeed.
Keywords: Globalization, Knowledge based-economy, Innovation, Lisbon Strategy.
