Business and Management

Digital Era Governance: IT Corporations, the State, and e-Government

Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margetts, Simon Bastow, Jane Tinkler

Government information systems are big business (costing over 1% of GDP a year). They are critical to all aspects of public policy and governmental operations. Governments spend billions ... More

Government information systems are big business (costing over 1% of GDP a year). They are critical to all aspects of public policy and governmental operations. Governments spend billions on them — for instance, the United Kingdom alone commits £14 billion a year to public sector information technology (IT) operations. Yet governments do not generally develop or run their own systems, instead relying on private sector computer services providers to run large, long-run contracts to provide IT. Some of the biggest companies in the world (IBM, EDS, Lockheed Martin, etc.) have made this a core market. This book shows how governments in some countries (the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands) have maintained much more effective policies than others (in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia). It shows how public managers need to retain and develop their own IT expertise and to carefully maintain well-contested markets if they are to deliver value for money in their dealings with the very powerful global IT industry. This book describes how a critical aspect of the modern state is managed, or in some cases mismanaged. Less

Information Orientation: The Link to Business Performance

Donald A. Marchand, William J. Kettinger, John D. Rollins

In today's fast-moving, e-commerce economy, information is power. For years, companies have been investing in IT, expecting to develop their ability to exploit the power of information ... More

In today's fast-moving, e-commerce economy, information is power. For years, companies have been investing in IT, expecting to develop their ability to exploit the power of information and achieve better business performance. Frequently, a company's investment has been a cost with no clear payback; a competitive necessity rather than a strategic advantage. The book presents a framework for evaluating IT strategies: Information Orientation. Information Orientation does this by determining the degree to which a company implements and realizes the synergies across three information capabilities: information behaviours and values; information management practices; and information technology practices. This book provides a description of the dimensions of each of the capabilities, along with the analytical basis which validates the research, finding that a company must integrate all three information capabilities as a precondition for achieving superior business performance. It presents the Information Orientation Dashboard as a diagnostic tool to measure and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a company's information capabilities. Less

The Information Society and the Welfare State: The Finnish Model

Manuel Castells, Pekka Himanen

Silicon Valley has been considered as the model that societies must imitate to succeed in the information age. However, recently another alternative has attracted strong international ... More

Silicon Valley has been considered as the model that societies must imitate to succeed in the information age. However, recently another alternative has attracted strong international interest: the Finnish model. This is equally dynamic in technological and economic terms, but combines the information society with the welfare state. This book looks at what the Finnish model really is. The chapters analyse the factors that have enabled Nokia to become the world's leading telecommunications company, for example, and Linux to become the biggest challenger to Microsoft in the operating systems market. They discuss the development of Nokia and the Finnish innovation model, with important lessons for businesses and national technology policies. However, the Finnish model's most radical and interesting feature is its attempt to combine technological and economic success with social justice and equality. The book shows how Finland has uniquely created a ‘virtuous cycle’ out of the information society and the welfare state: the successful information society makes the continued financing of the welfare state possible and the welfare state generates well-educated people in good shape for the information society's continued success. This model has significant implications for all societies where policy debates about the information society and/or public policy are on the agenda. Ultimately, the Finnish model proves that there is no one model for the information age, but that there is room for different policies and values. Less

Information Technology and Organizations: Strategies, Networks, and Integration

Rod Coombs, David Knights, Dale Littler

Brian P. Bloomfield (ed.)

This book is concerned with the ways in which organizations design, build and use information technology (IT) systems. In particular it looks at the interaction between these IT-centred ... More

This book is concerned with the ways in which organizations design, build and use information technology (IT) systems. In particular it looks at the interaction between these IT-centred activities and the broader management processes within organizations. The authors adopt a critical social science perspective on these issues, and are primarily concerned with advancing theoretical debates on how best to understand the related processes of technological and organizational change. To this end, the book examines and deploys recent work on power/knowledge, actor-network theory and critical organization theory. The result is an account of the nature and significance of information systems in organizations, which is an alternative perspective to pragmatic and recipe-based approaches to this topic that dominate much contemporary management literature on IT. Less

Information Technology Policy: An International History

Richard Coopey (ed.)

Information Technology (IT) has become symbolic of modernity and progress almost since its inception. The nature and boundaries of IT have also meant that it has shaped, or become ... More

Information Technology (IT) has become symbolic of modernity and progress almost since its inception. The nature and boundaries of IT have also meant that it has shaped, or become embedded within, a wide range of other scientific, technological, and economic developments. Governments, from the outset, saw the computer as a strategic technology, a keystone of economic development, and an area where technology policy should be targeted. This was true for those economies interested in maintaining their technological and economic leadership, but also figured strongly in the developmental programmes of those seeking to modernize or catch up. So strong was this notion that predominant political economic ideologies have frequently been subverted or distorted to allow for special efforts to promote either the production or use of IT. This book brings together country-based studies to examine in depth the nature and extent of IT policies, as they have evolved from a complex historical interaction of politics, technology, institutions, and social and cultural factors. In doing so, many key questions are critically examined. Where can we find successful examples of IT policy? Who has shaped policy? Who did governments turn to for advice in framing policy? Several chapters outline the impact of military influence on IT. What is the precise nature of this influence on IT development? How closely were industry leaders linked to government programmes and to what extent were these programmes, particularly those aimed at the generation of ‘national champions’, misconceived through undue special pleading? How effective were government personnel and politicians in assessing the merits of programmes predicated on technological trajectories extrapolated from increasingly complex and specialised information? Less

Information Technology Strategies: How Leading Firms use IT to gain an Advantage

William V. Rapp

The focus of this book is on educating on the strategic principles fundamental to using information technology to gain market control. It provides case examples of how to use IT to ... More

The focus of this book is on educating on the strategic principles fundamental to using information technology to gain market control. It provides case examples of how to use IT to enhance existing core competencies and strategies. The book is designed to help managers struggling with how to advantageously harness the new information revolution. It can also support executive and business education programs on managing technology when few such studies exist. While Internet and information technologies are currently hot topics, many firms and executives are without the tools and knowledge of how to actually use them to improve results. This book describes how major non-information technology companies are doing this and the strategic principles employed. Less

Inside the Communication Revolution: Evolving Patterns of Social and Technical Interaction

Robin Mansell (ed.)

This book analyses different aspects of life and work within ‘the heart of the ICT Revolution’. The book engages with the disciplines of sociology, political science, media and ... More

This book analyses different aspects of life and work within ‘the heart of the ICT Revolution’. The book engages with the disciplines of sociology, political science, media and communication studies, and management, providing information for business practitioners and policy makers who wish to understand the significance of digital technologies for society, the economy, and social organisation. Less

The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society

Manuel Castells

This book presents a stunning insight on the impact of the Internet and communication technologies on society in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The author puts forward the ... More

This book presents a stunning insight on the impact of the Internet and communication technologies on society in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The author puts forward the case that the Internet is not just a technology, but the very fabric and backbone of the New Economy, and of the Network Society. It is essential that people understand its language, its logic, its constraints, and its freedoms in order to manage and to change their reality. Less

Internet Governance: Infrastructure and Institutions

Lee A. Bygrave, Jon Bing (eds)

This book provides an exposition of key issues in the development, steering, and management of the Internet. Much of its focus is on the governance of the infrastructure for Internet ... More

This book provides an exposition of key issues in the development, steering, and management of the Internet. Much of its focus is on the governance of the infrastructure for Internet communication, particularly data transmission protocols, protocol addresses, and corresponding domain names. It also maps the development and application of core principles of network design for the Internet. A recurrent theme of the book is the challenges associated with establishing global, multi-stakeholder governance structures based on bottom-up, consensus-seeking decisional procedures, without direct foundation in a treaty framework. The book's basic argument is that the success of the Internet is largely due to its development within open and democratic cultures, and that Internet governance structures ought accordingly to continue to cultivate such cultures. Less