Manuel Castells states that information economy is not mutually exclusive with manufacturing economy.[3] He finds that some countries such as Germany and Japan exhibit the informatization of manufacturing processes. In a typical conceptualization, however, information economy is considered a "stage" or "phase" of an economy, coming after stages of hunting, agriculture, and manufacturing. This conceptualization can be widely observed regarding information society, a closely related but wider concept.
In The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker, Drucker describes the manual worker (page 2) who works with his hands and produces "stuff". The knowledge worker (page 3) works with his head and produces ideas, knowledge, and information.[4]
See also
Capitalism – Economic system based on private ownership
Creative industry – Economic sectorPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
Digital economy – Economy based on digital computing technologies