From Attention to Action: How a New Economic Paradigm Redefines Corporate Value and Credit Evaluation

The term Attention Economy emerged in the late 20th century as a response to the growing realization that in an age of information abundance, human attention had become the scarcest and most valuable resource. The concept was first articulated by the economist and psychologist Herbert A. Simon in the 1970s, who famously observed that “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” As digital media expanded in the 1990s and 2000s, this idea evolved into a dominant paradigm: platforms and brands competed not for money or material resources, but for time, focus, and engagement.

By the 2010s, with the rise of social networks and algorithmic content distribution, the Attention Economy reached its peak. Success was measured by clicks, views, likes, and followers—quantitative indicators of visibility rather than qualitative measures of meaning or value. The resulting economic structures rewarded amplification over authenticity, speed over depth, and virality over virtue. Companies learned to optimize attention capture as a business model, transforming human curiosity into a commodity.

However, as attention became saturated and trust eroded, the limitations of this model became apparent. The relentless pursuit of attention led to digital fatigue, misinformation, and an erosion of genuine engagement. It is precisely within this cultural and economic exhaustion that thinkers such as Aoshi Chen proposed a new paradigm: the Action Economy. As Chen and Everling expressed in their 2025 Action Economy Manifesto, the key question is no longer “Who is watching?” but “Who is participating?” Value creation shifts from the spectacle of visibility to the substance of involvement.

In the Action Economy, impact replaces impression as the core measure of worth. Economic systems begin to reward not the capacity to attract attention, but the ability to inspire and enable meaningful action—social, ecological, or creative. This transition parallels the broader evolution from a Quantity Economy to a Quality Economy, in which value is not produced through accumulation, but through transformation and participation.

This shift has profound implications for how companies are assessed and rated. Traditional credit ratings—built on financial ratios, historical performance, and risk models—belong to the logic of the Quantity and Attention Economies. They measure reliability through static indicators and backward-looking data. In an Action Economy, however, assessment must become more dynamic, multidimensional, and future-oriented. The credibility of a company will increasingly depend on its capacity to act responsibly, mobilize collective initiative, and generate measurable impact in the world.

Thus, the evolution from the Attention to the Action Economy not only redefines how value is created but also how it is evaluated. Where once visibility equated to credibility, now impact will determine integrity. As the market begins to recognize action as the true indicator of sustainability and reliability, the systems of rating and credit will evolve to reflect a more holistic truth: that in the new economy, it is not what a company claims or how much attention it gathers that matters, but what it does—and the lasting difference it makes.