The Network Economy

• Beyond Symmetry: State Sovereignty in a Networked Global Economy - There is no question that the late twentieth century world economy, the "second global economy" differs significantly from the first. It is broader in terms of the number of national markets included (albeit to varying degrees) as constituent units and deeper in terms of the density of interaction, of flows of trade and investment. Furthermore, the dominant mode of organization of international economic transactions has changed significantly since Mackinder's time from the market (trade and portfolio investment) to hierarchy or the internationalization of production through the MNE. By the early 1990s 37,000 Transnational Corporations with world-wide sales of about $5.5 trillion controlled about one-third of the world's private sector productive assets and the United Nations Programme on Transnationals could conclude that "...international production has become a central structural characteristic of the world economy." The question remains, however, whether globalization defines a change in degree or kind, an extension of the modern international world economy into somewhat unfamiliar territory or a systemic transformation which defines new structures and new modes of functioning. As Peter Dicken notes, while there is general agreement that major changes in the scope and organization of international economic activities are taking place, there is considerable disagreement over their interpretation. Does lobalization (and there is little agreement about its meaning) imply a systemic transformation of the world economy--a qualitative evolution beyond the international system--or does it merely represent a quantitative extension in breath and depth accompanied by an evolution of mode of organization?
• Network Economy - Numerous ideas and links pertaining to a changing economy.
• Virtual economy - The Net is a self-organizing system which has no goal, no predetermined scope or shape. Different projects, intentions, strategies may conflict and merge, without imposing a dominant structure. But the capitalist semiotization is trying to impose a direction, through the superimposition of Infobahn and the creation of the Info-Econo-Sphere. Capital is not a system, but a semiotic Code, a paradigm regulating the production of interfaces. Actually we see that the capitalist semiotization of the Net is proceeding through the creation of interfaces of simplification. Making thing easy is the way to technological dependency, and to economic domination. The economic paradigm is being inoculated in the net through the building of the Infobahn, and the present creation of the cybermarket is tightening the connection between technology, productivity and competition; and this connection produces an acceleration of the info-production leading to a hypersaturation of neuro-social pathways. The unlimited expansion of cyberspace conflicts with the organic bounds of cybertime.
  In any way, the possibilities of free utilization of the net cannot be destroyed - because the net is not a territory: it is irreductable to the law, and to any kind of domination. Probably we are exaggerating the effects of the Internet in the future transformation of the society. Probably the social and cultural effects of this phenomenon will not be so important, and the Net will not change so deeply the daily life and the social landscape. Probably this technology will be overwhelmed by new discoveries, will be abandoned or marginalized. But, in any case something very important has happened, thanks to the Networking revolution: a social paradigm has experimented, that will not be eradicated. The paradigm of rhyzomatic society, a proliferating web of temporary communities, sharing the same unlimited non-territory of the Cyberspace. The present shape of the Net may be a transient experimentation, but the direction is set towards new adventures in autonomy.
• Facility Management without the Facilities - A quick search of the Internet delivers a wealth of information on those industries where net-based solutions are questioning the very need for buildings. There are cyberschools, virtual warehouses, telehealth, virtual warfare, virtual travel, and an overwhelming list of virtual opportunities varying from virtual massages to virtual bed and breakfasts.
• Network Economies & Social Capital - The classic theory of the firm laid out by Ronald Coase in 1937 argues that hiearchies exist because of transaction costs. A complex activity like building cars could be done in theory, by small, decentralized firms contracting with one another to produce all of the component parts, with separate companies providing design, systems integration, and marketing. The reason cars are not made this way by giant, vertically integrated firms is that the costs of all of the negotiating, contracting, and litigating required to outsource everything are much greater than the cost of bringing these activities in-house, where the firm can control the quality of all the inputs and outputs by managerial fiat. ... If we understood a network not as a type of formal organization, but as social capital, we will have much better insight into what a network's economic function is. By this view, a network is a moral relationship of trust: A network is a group of individual agents who share informal norms or values beyond those necessary for ordinary market transactions.
• A New Approach to Productivity, Education and the Competitive Challenge of the Global Networked Economy in the 21st Century - Presently, in almost all facets of our ongoing industrial and service activities the acquisition and usage of information/knowledge - the ability to perceive, comprehend and apply - has become a critical attribute of an individual worker, irrespective of being an employee or entrepreneur. Consequently, computers and networks, including the Internet, have also become an integral part of our work and living environments.
• Wired for Anarchy - If Ian Angell is right about the future of the new economy, most of the world is screwed. From his vantage point as professor of information systems at the prestigious London School of Economics ( LSE ), Angell, 53, spins a scenario of the future in which the world's business and technical elite use the Net to live wherever they want and to do whatever they please, without government intrusion. Leveraging their wealth and their much-in-demand professional skills, the chosen few ( who really aren't so few ) can live in countries that will bid to have them as residents - through offers of tax relief and through promises of noninterference in their affairs.
• AnnaLee Saxenian: Limits of Autarky - Regional Networks and Industrial Adaptation in Silicon Valley and Route 128 - In this essay I compare California's Silicon Valley and Route 128 in Massachusetts to suggest the limits of the concept of external economies and propose an alternative, network approach to analyzing regional economies. The common notion of external economies is based on an assumption that the firm is an atomistic unit of production with clearly defined boundaries. By drawing a sharp distinction between what occurs inside and what occurs outside the firm, scholars overlook the complex and historically-evolved relations between the internal organization of firms and their connections to one another and the social structures and institutions of a particular locality. The network perspective helps explain the divergent performance of apparently comparable regional clusters, such as Silicon Valley and Route 128, and provides important insights into the local sources of competitive advantage.
• WebEc - Economics of Networks - Wide-ranging list of weblinks.
• Intellectual Property On The Net
• Free-Market.Net: Dynamists vs. Stasists
• The Net Economy Revolution
• A Model for the Global Networked Business - See "White Papers".
• Networking Games
• Junk Yard of the Net, Economy, Economy, Economy!!!
• Markets, Antimarkets and Network
• Markets, Antimarkets and the Economics of the Net
• Flexible Networking, Information and Communications Technology and Local Economic Development
• The Logic of Networks
• The Connected Economy: Beyond the Information Age
• Bibliography on Network Economics
• Emergence Of Communication Networks In Organizations
• Economics of Networks Internet Site
• Networks
• Evolution of Business Networking
• The Advent of Business Ecosystems
• From Pyramids To Process Networked Organizations
• Organizing Diversity: Evolutionary Theory, Network Analysis, and Postsocialist Transformations
• Global Networks
• Introduction: The New Enterprise Network
• Beyond Symmetry: State Sovereignty in a Networked Global Economy - a well-documented review article
• The economics of networks - ecospace!
• Network payment mechanisms and digital cash - more ecospace!
• The Economist reports on the information superhighway - useful links to the economics of networks

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