Globalization, keystones and ecosystems

The final session will focus on how changes in information technology can affect the market as a whole. The aim of the session is to give you an insight into the recursive relationship between developments in information technology, business strategy and the broader context of the formation of strategy.

By the end of this session you should have:

• an understanding of the potential that information technology has to define and create new markets

• an appreciation of the way in which global / market level forces both shape and are shaped by technology

• an appreciation of the social and ethical dimensions to development of global information systems

Having looked at the relationship between IT and strategy within and between firms, we now move on to look at the role that IT and IS play in shaping strategy at the global level.

We will begin by looking at what we mean by globalization and the reasons behind it and then go on to consider how organizations have changed their structure because of this. We will then look at the contribution that IT can make to business strategy at the global level in more detail by looking at the notion of digital ecosystems.

As this is the last session in this course, we will end by looking back at some of the topics that we covered in the earlier sessions and forward to some of the social and ethical dimensions to the topic. By the time we have finished this session, we should have come full circle and returned to re-examine many of the issues we looked at in the first session but should now be able to look at these same issues with a more informed and more critical gaze.

Additional reading / background information for session 6

Globalization and the Global Village

• The Business of Globalization and the Globalization of Business
  A short article from Journal of Comparative International Management that covers most of the key concepts behind the globalization of business as well as putting the phenomenon of Globalization in its historical context.

• Global Markets and the Global Village in the 21st Century: Are International Organizations Prepared for the Challenge?
  A lecture that focuses on globalization and the role of international organizations prepared for the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Auswartige Politik (German Society for Foreign Affairs) by Stanley Fischer, First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.

The reality of the global village

• e-readiness ranking
  A list of countries produced by IBM showing their readiness to participate in the 'new economy'.

• Inclusion or exclusion?
  Will the networked economy widen or narrow the gap between developing and industrialized countries? A short article from UNESCO.

Keystones and Ecosystems

• The Paradigm of Structural Coupling in Digital Ecosystems
  Despite the title, this article is an interesting discussion of the role that Digital Ecosystems can play in regional development produced as part of a larger EU sponsored Project - The Digital Ecosystems Research Vision: 2010 and beyond.

• Structural Analysis and Visualization of Ecosystems: A Study of Mobile Device Platforms
  This article contains a description of a method to visualize the changes in a business ecosystem but also contains some interesting diagrams that show how the "mobile devices" ecosystem changed between 2006 and 2008.

Some examples

• Creating Value in Your Business Ecosystem
  A short piece on Keystone Strategies and Ecosystems from the HBS "Working Knowledge" series that provides some concrete examples of how these strategies work.

• Rewiring Electronics
  A short piece from IBM on strategies for sustainable growth in the electronics industry from the perspective of business ecosystems. Covers a little of the theory as well as providing examples and short case studies.

Social and Ethical Dimensions

• Google in China: A Manager-Friendly Model for Resolving Cross-Cultural Ethical Conflicts ^(*)
  Discusses some of the ethical and cross-cultural problems faced by organizations. Although this is a rather theoretical paper it does contain a good discussion of google's problems in China.
  For a wider discussion of censorship see the Overview from the Access and Power page from another course.

• Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring and Workplace Privacy and Surveillance
  These two web pages (from America and Australia) outline the legal limits of an employers right to monitor their employees.
  For a wider discussion of privacy and surveillance in the workplace see the links section from the Control and Surveillance page from another course.

• Closing the digital divide
  This newspaper article talks about how the advent of cheap cell phone technology is helping to "bridge the digital divide" mentioned above.
  For a wider discussion of these issue see the page Issues of Access and Inequality from another course.

^(*) = log-in to ebsco required to access this article.

Reading

As with all of the sessions in this segment of the course, I have chosen some reading for you from the Harvard Business review in addition to the text books for the course. The link to the articles (with a short summary of each) can be found below:

• Required reading for session 6

You may also find the following of use:

• M. Peltoniemi. Cluster, Value Network and Business Ecosystem: Knowledge and Innovation Approaches

• Xie, Bo. The mutual shaping of online and offline social relationships

For private study

Self Assessment

There is a set of self assessment questions to go with this session. The goal of this session was give you an insight into the recursive relationship between developments in information technology, business strategy and the context of the formation of strategy. The self assessment questions are there to help you to think about some of the issues that were raised during this session. There are no right and wrong answers, the questions are there for you, not as part of a formal assessment.

The notes for this session are available as a presentation (in pdf format) - lecture notes for session 6.