How Revolutionary Was the Digital Revolution?
National Responses, Market Transitions, and Global Technology
Published on 9. June 2006
Book
Hardback
504 pages
978-0-8047-5334-0 (ISBN)
Description
How do high wage countries stay rich in a global digital economy? How Revolutionary was the Digital Revolution constructs a framework for analyzing the international digital era: one that examines the ability of political actors to innovate and experiment in spite of, or perhaps because of, the constraints posed by digital technology.
In order to assess the revolutionary nature of the digital era, this book takes four overlapping approaches. First, it examines the reaction of nations, specifically Finland, Japan, and emerging markets, to the dual challenges of globalization and technological change. This section identifies both successful and failed national experiments intended to deal with these dual pressures. Second, it assesses corporate attempts to leverage digital technology to reorganize work. A broad range of issues including off-shoring, open source production systems, and knowledge management are addressed. Third, devoting detailed analysis to the case of mobile telephones, the book offers insights into the political economy of market evolution in the digital era. The final section considers the political ramifications of information technology for critical societal debates ranging from privacy to intellectual property.
The contributors to the book map out how the digital revolution shakes up politics, creating new economic and political winners and losers. In order to do so, they connect theories of political economy to the implications of digital technology for international as well as national markets.
In order to assess the revolutionary nature of the digital era, this book takes four overlapping approaches. First, it examines the reaction of nations, specifically Finland, Japan, and emerging markets, to the dual challenges of globalization and technological change. This section identifies both successful and failed national experiments intended to deal with these dual pressures. Second, it assesses corporate attempts to leverage digital technology to reorganize work. A broad range of issues including off-shoring, open source production systems, and knowledge management are addressed. Third, devoting detailed analysis to the case of mobile telephones, the book offers insights into the political economy of market evolution in the digital era. The final section considers the political ramifications of information technology for critical societal debates ranging from privacy to intellectual property.
The contributors to the book map out how the digital revolution shakes up politics, creating new economic and political winners and losers. In order to do so, they connect theories of political economy to the implications of digital technology for international as well as national markets.
Reviews / Votes
"This wide-ranging volume is essential reading for anyone interested in the ongoing structural transformations and future challenges posed by information and communication technology (ICT) in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. The book provides extremely important insights into the political economy of the global digital era and helps us understand the interplay of technology, corporate strategy, and public policy. Understanding this interplay at all levels-corporate, national, and international-is the key to fully utilizing the potential of ICT and to enhance long-term economic growth."-Erkki Liikanen, Governor, Bank of Finland, Former Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society of the European Union "This outstanding volume provokes reflection on the vast changes in the world economy caused by the digital revolution. The editors and the authors provide not only facts but creative ideas: fresh thoughts about how to understand the relationship among technology, corporate strategy, public policy, and the global marketplace. It differentiates among what is global and what remains distinctively national. This book should be read by everybody interested in important issues concerning employment, wealth, and power. It helps redefine the 'conversation' we are having about globalization."-Peter Gourevitch, University of California, San Diego "This book looks at the digital revolution from a number of perspectives, providing an essential reflection on an important topic. Which aspects of corporate strategies, national institutions, and technology investments led to major successes, and which did not? The book addresses these questions by examining specific cases using multiple disciplinary approaches. It provides valuable insights into the future evolution of the economy, technology, and business strategy, not just recent history. Read it."-Stuart I. Feldman, Vice President, Computer Science, IBM ResearchMore details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Publishing group
Stanford University Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Cloth
Illustrations
26 tables, 15 figures
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
794 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8047-5334-0 (9780804753340)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
John Zysman is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley and Codirector of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE). Abraham Newman is Assistant Professor at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University and Research Associate at BRIE.
Content
Contents Figures and Tables Acknowledgments Abbreviations Contributors Introduction 1. Frameworks for Understanding the Political Economy of the Digital Era Abraham Newman and John Zysman 2. Creating Value in a Digital Era (Exploring the Experimental Economy: How Do Wealthy Nations Stay Wealthy? John Zysman Part One. National Stories and Global Markets in the Digital Era The Finnish Story 3. Finland's Emergence as a Global Information Technology Player: Lessons from the Finnish Wireless Cluster Ari Hyytinen, Laura Paija, Petri Rouvinen, and Pekka Yla-Anttila 4. An Old Consensus in the "New" Economy? Institutional Adaptation, Technological Innovation and Economic Restructuring in Finland Darius Ornston and Olli Rehn The Japanese Story 5. Telecom Competition in World Markets: Understanding Japan's Decline Robert Cole 6. Japan's Telecommunications Regime Shift: Understanding Japan's Potential Resurgence Kenji Kushida What Next? 7. The Emerging Economies in the Digital Era: Market Places, Market Players, and Market Makers Naazneen Barma Part Two. The Experiments: Vision and Execution Business Strategies 8. Enron's Missed Opportunity: Enron's Refusal to Build a Collaborative Market Turned Bandwidth Trading into a Disaster Andrew Schwartz Reorganizing Work 9. The Relocation of Service Provision to Developing Nations: The Case of India Rafiq Dossani and Martin Kenney 10. From Linux to Lipitor: How The Coming Reconfiguration of IP Can Move Pharma off a Deteriorating Path Steven Weber 11. Research Note on The Learning Organization Tobias Schulze-Cleven Knowledge in an Information Society 12. Spoken About Knowledge: Why It Takes Much More Than Knowledge Management to Manage Knowledge Niels Christian Nielsen and Maj Cecilie Nielsen 13. Pooling Knowledge: Trends and Characteristics of R&D Alliances in the ICT Sector Christopher Palmberg and Olli Martikainen Part Three. Market Transitions: Reorganizing Markets, Getting from Here to There 14. The Peculiar Evolution of 3G Wireless Networks: Institutional Logic, Politics, and Property Rights Peter Cowhey, Jonathan Aronson, and John Richards 15. Success Factors in Mobile Telephony: Why Diffusion in the Us and Europe Differ Heli Koski 16. National Styles in the Setting of Global Standards: The Relationship Between Firms' Standardization Strategies and National Origin Aija Leiponen Part Four. Social Transformations 17. Weaving the Authoritarian Web: The Control of Internet Use in Non-Democratic Regimes Taylor C. Boas 18. Copyright's Digital Reformation Brodi Kemp 19. Transforming Politics in a Digital Era Abraham Newman and John Zysman Bibliography Index