Networking for Success in Cyberspace

Several key technologies are converging to create the emerging cyberspace. We characterize this convergence process as one of cumulative synthesis and suggest that the network mode of organization is the most appropriate for facilitating convergence.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Network strategies for the new economy

In this paper we argue that the pace and scale of development in the information and communication technology industries (ICT) has had and continues to have major effects on the industry economics and competitive dynamics generally. We maintain that the size of changes in demand and supply conditions is forcing companies to make significant changes in the way they conceive and implement their strategies. We decompose the ICT industries into four levels, technology standards, supply chains, physical platforms, and consumer networks. The nature of these technologies and their cost characteristics coupled with higher degrees of knowledge specialisation is impelling companies to radical revisions of their attitudes towards cooperation and co-evolution with suppliers and customers. Where interdependencies between customers are particularly strong, we anticipate the possibility of winner-takes-all strategies. In these circumstances industry risks become very high and there will be significant consequences for competitive markets

Network Strategy in the Digital Economy

This chapter is concerned with the ‘new’ world of information technology and knowledge intensity. This is a world marked by big investments in R&D, different cost structures and significantly changed demand conditions. You should read this chapter in conjunction with Chapter 19, which deals with knowledge, information and innovation. In this chapter, we are concerned with how the logic of competitive advantage applies to the new conditions in which we find ourselves. To anticipate the conclusions, we will see that the strategic context has shifted a great deal. This means that fundamental demand and cost conditions have changed, resulting in different strategies being pursued. The new world and the new economy do mean that the old strategic logic is outmoded. Instead, we see a significant change in the strategic context that results in the logic of competitive advantage being applied in different ways. The chapter presents and contrasts the differences between the old world of scale and scope economies and the new world of network externalities. There is an extensive discussion of what network externalities are and how they arise but the reader should read this in the context of addition, not replacement – scale and scope have not been replaced; there is, however, another important practical phenomenon to consider. Networks are supported by many layers of infrastructure and we go into some detail to show how the technological infrastructure can be identified and analysed. There are many implications for competition, which we review. Finally, we summarize the implications for strategy – although it is a new world, the logic of competitive advantage still applies

Networking for Success in Cyberspace

Several key technologies are converging to create the emerging cyberspace. We characterize this convergence process as one of curnuiative synthesis and suggest that the network mode of organization is the most appropriate for facilitating convergence. Almost 50 years ago, Usher [19] suggested a model of technologcd change that recopzed both its incremental nature and its revolutionary effects. Specifically, Usher observed that technological changes occur through the cumulative synthesis of a stream of insights or innovations over time. He emphasized that cumulative synthesis was a continual process that entails the perception of an incomplete pattern, the setting o