Past, Present and Future of the Telecommunications Industry

The telecommunications industry has experienced a series of dramatic changes since itsinception in the 1880s. Due to the latest liberalization and privatization wave in the world, the telecommunications industry has turned into a dynamic environment and is rapidly growing.In addition, the New Economy emerged and brought new technological developments in the1990s. They have stimulated the convergence of previously distinct industries such as thetelecommunications, information technology, entertainment, media, and consumerelectronics, into the so-called multimedia information industry. This study discusses the (de)regulation actions and their implications on the telecommunications industry as of its beginning. Furthermore, this study also presents a general overview of major trends in inter-firm partnerships and M&As in the telecommunications industry since 1985, examining both the general developments and the distribution according to internationalization and industries. We find that the overall trends demonstrated an increase in importance of inter-firm partnerships and M&As over time. Another significant finding is the increase in importance of other industries. In relative terms, the growth of M&As and alliances with partners outside the telecommunications industry superseded the increase in the number of M&A’s and alliances within the industry.Strategy;

Innovation in Isolation: Labor-Management Partnerships in the United States

In the United States, as in other advanced industrial countries, worker participation in management has taken on increasing importance, placing pressures on employers and unions to change how they deal with employees/members, and with each other. This paper examines two of the most impressive cases in the U.S.: the partnerships between General Motors (G.M.) and the United Autoworkers union (U.A W.) at Saturn and between BellSouth and the Communication Workers union (C.W.A.). We outline the evolution and the basic features of these innovations, as well as highlighting certain ongoing problems. These problems, we argue, confront the parties to employment relations in the U.S. more generally, reflecting profound ambivalence about such experiments, and their continued isolation as ‘islands of excellence ’. As such, these cases both illustrate the vast potential for labor-management partnerships as well as the dampening effect of the employment relations context in the U.S

Cell me the money: unlocking the value in the mobile payment ecosystem

This report examines the challenges and benefits of mobile commerce in the United States. The report is based on a survey of senior executives from the mobile payment value chain. Survey results shed light on the key barriers that have traditionally challenged the mobile payment market in the United States, including the lack of revenue-sharing agreements, a dearth of consumer knowledge, low levels of demand and competing platforms in a fragmented market. Getting ahead of the curve will require companies to develop mutually beneficial business models and take advantage of further innovations made on the mobile platform. Ultimately, mobile carriers and financial institutions must come to the table and sacrifice in the short-term to create an opportunity to win big down the road

Union Participation in Strategic Decisions of Corporations

This paper reviews workforce participation in strategic decisions - those that affect the basic direction of the company - when workforce interests are represented collectively through unions. We consider the problem of corporate governance and review the rationale for what we term strategic partnerships' between management and labor. The paper describes the prevalence of such partnerships in the U.S., focusing on two institutions through which unions have engaged in discussion of strategic issues: negotiated union-management partnership agreements, and union representation on corporate boards. We offer detailed accounts of specific strategic partnerships and of union involvement on corporate boards, showing that unions face a range of challenges in constructing partnerships that extend possibilities for effective representations of workers' interests.

Sprint and the Shutdown of La Conexion Familiar: A Union-Hating Multinational Finds Nowhere to Run

[Excerpt] Sprint chairman William T. Esrey has a dream: a long-distance phone company whose fiber-optic tentacles snake across the globe to embrace European and Asian partners, snaring a chunk of the projected $30 billion market for such global corporate networks. The workers fired en masse from Sprint\u27s San Francisco-based La Conexion Familiar subsidiary, thwarted in their attempt to unionize, have their own dreams: among them, receiving reparations for the wrongs dealt to them by Sprint, and keeping their families out of homeless shelters. The chasm between these dreams illustrates the bitter truth about the global economy: while the heads of executives spin with plans for ever-larger money-making enterprises, the workers on whose backs these schemes are erected face a harsh reality: increased union-busting, job losses, lower wages, and worsening working conditions

Ready for Tomorrow: Demand-Side Emerging Skills for the 21st Century

As part of the Ready for the Job demand-side skill assessment, the Heldrich Center explored emerging work skills that will affect New Jersey's workforce in the next three to five years. The Heldrich Center identified five specific areas likely to generate new skill demands: biotechnology, security, e-learning, e-commerce, and food/agribusiness. This report explores the study's findings and offers recommendations for improving education and training in New Jersey

Education and Training Funded by the H-1B Visa Fee and the Demand for Information Technology and Other Professional Specialty Workers

CRS_April_2005_Education_and_Training_Funded_by_the_H_1B.pdf: 1087 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

What's Going on in Community Media

What's Going On in Community Media shines a spotlight on media practices that increase citizen participation in media production, governance, and policy. The report summarizes the findings of a nationwide scan of effective and emerging community media practices conducted by the Benton Foundation in collaboration with the Community Media and Technology Program of the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The scan includes an analysis of trends and emerging practices; comparative research; an online survey of community media practitioners; one-on-one interviews with practitioners, funders and policy makers; and the information gleaned from a series of roundtable discussions with community media practitioners in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Portland, Oregon

2008 State New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the States

Scores and ranks states' economic structures on their competitiveness in the New Economy, as measured by the prominence of knowledge jobs, globalization, economic dynamism, transformation to a digital economy, and capacity for technological innovation