Property and the Construction of the Information Economy: A Neo-Polanyian Ontology

This chapter considers the changing roles and forms of information property within the political economy of informational capitalism. I begin with an overview of the principal methods used in law and in media and communications studies, respectively, to study information property, considering both what each disciplinary cluster traditionally has emphasized and newer, hybrid directions. Next, I develop a three-part framework for analyzing information property as a set of emergent institutional formations that both work to produce and are themselves produced by other evolving political-economic arrangements. The framework considers patterns of change in existing legal institutions for intellectual property, the ongoing dematerialization and datafication of both traditional and new inputs to economic production, and the emerging logics of economic organization within which information resources (and property rights) are mobilized. Finally, I consider the implications of that framing for two very different contemporary information property projects, one relating to data flows within platform-based business models and the other to information commons

Music in electronic markets: an empirical study

Music plays an important, and sometimes overlooked part in the transformation of communication and distribution channels. With a global market volume exceeding US$40 billion, music is not only one of the primary entertainment goods in its own right. Since music is easily personalized and transmitted, it also permeates many other services across cultural borders, anticipating social and economic trends. This article presents one of the first detailed empirical studies on the impact of internet technologies on a specific industry. Drawing on more than 100 interviews conducted between 1996 and 2000 with multinational and independent music companies in 10 markets, strategies of the major players, current business models, future scenarios and regulatory responses to the online distribution of music files are identified and evaluated. The data suggest that changes in the music industry will indeed be far-reaching, but disintermediation is not the likely outcome

Can environmental governance benefit from an ICT-social capital nexus in civil society?

Although the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to foster social capital in civil society has been duly acknowledged, few studies have empirically explored the ICT-social capital nexus in the context of community organizations. Huysman and Wulf (2004) consider the lack of interest in the area of ‘ICT and social capital’ as worrisome in today’s increasingly network-centric society. Since the prospect of ICT furthering social capital is simply too significant to ignore, this paper responds to this gap by reporting on one aspect of a 2008 survey of environmental community organizations (ECOs) undertaken to develop a broader understanding of the linkages between organizational social capital and information and communication technologies in the Perth region of Western Australia. By exploring the trend of ICT uptake, pattern of intra-organizational as well as inter-organizational interactions, and the association between ICT uptake and organizational interactions, this paper critically engages in the ‘ICT and social capital’ debate and discusses the implications of ICT-social capital nexus in the context of environmental governance

Information and communication Technology and Poverty: An Asian Perspective

The emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), in particular the Internet, has generated new enthusiasms about the development prospects for poor economies. Many now think that new technologies can provide a faster route to better livelihoods and improved quality of life than the one afforded by the standard process of industrialization. The opposing view holds that the focus on ICTs will detract attention from the more fundamental task of addressing the basic problems of economic developmentICT; poverty; growth

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Business models as systemic instruments for the evolution of traditional districts?

This paper aims to explore the potential role of Innovation Intermediaries in the evolution of a traditional cluster toward a service-oriented perspective. In particular, we will highlight the generative function of business models, here as market devices, in stimulating the co- evolution of Intermediary and target firms’ strategies.Business Models, Innovation Intermediaries, Entrepreneurship, Manufacturing, Systemic Instruments

Twenty years of electronic markets research: looking backwards towards the future

Over the past 20 years the field of electronic markets has seen a considerable proliferation and differentiation. This position paper takes the opportunity of the 21st volume of “Electronic Markets” to look back at important developments and insights, suggesting a framework that captures the multiple facets and indeed empirical breadth and depths of this concept. It comprises three perspectives which include the market environment, governance choices by economic actors as well as the entrepreneurial dynamics of firms who initiate and operate market platforms as their business. In addition, we propose to study the interplay of technological, market, and institutional drivers in order to understand the phenomenon of electronic markets, which is also a precondition for designing electronic markets. Both activities involve more than an economically motivated choice between the discrete alternatives of markets and hierarchies. Rather, electronic markets are configurations across multiple, interdependent dimensions: Technology is an important force in shaping the field, but needs to be complemented by considerations of the competitive environment and the setting of rules in order to ensure efficient and effective plays of the game. Based on this framework, this position paper develops six propositions for the future of electronic markets. Overall, the advantages of intermediated structures, an ongoing technological sophistication, as well as further innovation in market mechanisms and services make electronic markets an ena-bler for many interorganizational value chains. While we are confident that the ingenuity of inventors will yield a flow of innovations, recent economic crises have shed a dark shadow over the sustainability of electronic markets. They call for suitable rules and regulation amenable to economic prosperity and stability to be agreed upon on a broad level