Comparative analyses of the development and economic development of the Internet in seven countries.

Schumpeter's framework of creative destruction applied to the rapidly changing telecommunications and related Internet industries. More than fifty years ago, Joseph Schumpeter stated that processes intrinsic to a capitalist society produce a "creative destruction," whereby innovations destroy obsolete technologies, only to be assaulted in turn by newer and more efficient rivals. This book asks whether the current chaotic state of the telecommunications and related Internet industries is evidence of creative destruction, or simply a result of firms, governments, and others wasting valuable resources with limited benefits to society as a whole. In telecommunications, for example, wireless, IP, and cable-based technologies are all fighting for a share of the market currently dominated by older, circuit-switched, copper-terminated networks. This process is accompanied by mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, and investment and divestment in worldwide markets.The selections discuss the primary challenge facing firms, governments, and other players: how to exploit the opportunities created by such destructive dynamics. They highlight the importance of national regulations promoting competition and nonmonopolistic market structures, as well as the role of new technologies such as the Internet in driving down the price and speeding the diffusion of innovative products and services in telecommunications, media, electronic retailing, and other "new economy" industries.

Investigations of what increasing digital connectivity and the digitalization of the economy mean for people and places at the world's economic margins. Within the last decade, more than one billion people became new Internet users. Once, digital connectivity was confined to economically prosperous parts of the world; now Internet users make up a majority of the world's population. In this book, contributors from a range of disciplines and locations investigate the impact of increased digital connectivity on people and places at the world's economic margins. Does the advent of a digitalized economy mean that those in economic peripheries can transcend spatial, organizational, social, and political constraints—or do digital tools and techniques tend to reinforce existing inequalities? The contributors present a diverse set of case studies, reporting on digitalization in countries ranging from Chile to Kenya to the Philippines, and develop a broad range of theoretical positions. They consider, among other things, data-driven disintermediation, women's economic empowerment and gendered power relations, digital humanitarianism and philanthropic capitalism, the spread of innovation hubs, and two cases of the reversal of core and periphery in digital innovation. Contributors Niels Beerepoot, Ryan Burns, Jenna Burrell, Julie Yujie Chen, Peter Dannenberg, Uwe Deichmann, Jonathan Donner, Christopher Foster, Mark Graham, Nicolas Friederici, Hernan Galperin, Catrihel Greppi, Anita Gurumurthy, Isis Hjorth, Lilly Irani, Molly Jackman, Calestous Juma, Dorothea Kleine, Madlen Krone, Vili Lehdonvirta, Chris Locke, Silvia Masiero, Hannah McCarrick,Deepak K. Mishra, Bitange Ndemo, Jorien Oprins, Elisa Oreglia, Stefan Ouma, Robert Pepper, Jack Linchuan Qiu, Julian Stenmanns, Tim Unwin, Julia Verne, Timothy Waema

Looks at how the Internet is affecting businesses, education, and government, touching on the twelve themes of the new economy and privacy issues

Note: this is an abridged version of the original book with references removed. The complete edition is also available. This book explores the intersection of public policy and the fast changing digital media economy. Over the last 20 years, digital technologies and digital content have revolutionized many aspects of social, economic and political life around the world. Governments, locked into the policies and programs of the traditional economy, are struggling to respond to this dynamic and commercially unique global ecosystem. This study examines the nature and extent of the digital economy, looking at both the commercial diversity within the sector and the different digital implementations across the world. While the digital engagement of North America is well known, the scale and intensity of digital growth in East Asia is not fully understood not are the transformative changes occurring in parts of Africa. The digital world is marked by the unexpected and rapid re-orientation of economic, social, cultural and political affairs. The digitization of work, for example, has already brought major disruptions within national economies. Governments are struggling to respond, in part because of pressures from the traditional industrial and resource sectors but also because of the unique, somewhat anarchistic nature of the digital content industry. The Global Digital Economy provides a profile of the global digital environment, reviews current government digital policies (with an emphasis on innovative strategies), and offers policy suggestions for national and subnational governments. Countries that respond creatively to the digital economy--like Taiwan, South Korea, Finland and Israel--stand to prosper from the anticipated accelerated growth of the sector. Those nations that struggle to keep pace with the digital infrastructure needs of the new economy and with the potential for employment and business creation stand to fall behind economically. This book provides a policy roadmap for the digital economy and identifies the risks and opportunities of this core sector in the twenty-first-century economy.

"This book specifically develops theories to understand service quality and quality management practice of EC which is completely a new and innovative effort to formulate perceptions of global consumers"--Provided by publisher.

The rapid growth of electronic commerce, along with changes in information, computing, and communications, is having a profound effect on the United States economy. President Clinton recently directed the National Economic Council, in consultation with executive branch agencies, to analyze the economic implications of the Internet and electronic commerce domestically and internationally, and to consider new types of data collection and research that could be undertaken by public and private organizations. This book contains work presented at a conference held by executive branch agencies in May 1999 at the Department of Commerce. The goals of the conference were to assess current research on the digital economy, to engage the private sector in developing the research that informs investment and policy decisions, and to promote better understanding of the growth and socioeconomic implications of information technology and electronic commerce. Aspects of the digital economy addressed include macroeconomic assessment, organizational change, small business, access, market structure and competition, and employment and the workforce.