Understanding the Digital Economy: Data, Tools and Research

Erik Brynjolfsson, Brian Kahin

MIT Press, 2002 - Business & Economics - 401 pages

The rapid growth of electronic commerce, along with changes in information, computing, and communications, is having a profound effect on the United States economy. President Clinton recently directed the National Economic Council, in consultation with executive branch agencies, to analyze the economic implications of the Internet and electronic commerce domestically and internationally, and to consider new types of data collection and research that could be undertaken by public and private organizations.

This book contains work presented at a conference held by executive branch agencies in May 1999 at the Department of Commerce. The goals of the conference were to assess current research on the digital economy, to engage the private sector in developing the research that informs investment and policy decisions, and to promote better understanding of the growth and socioeconomic implications of information technology and electronic commerce. Aspects of the digital economy addressed include macroeconomic assessment, organizational change, small business, access, market structure and competition, and employment and the workforce.

Contents

• Measuring the Digital Economy: 13
• Keeping up with the Changes: 34
• Present and Future in the Mirror of the Past: 49
• Market Structure Competition and the Role of Small Business: 97
• Review and Assessment: 99
• Market Structure in the Network Age: 137
• The Evolving Structure of Commercial Internet Markets: 151
• Small Companies in the Digital Economy: 185
• Small Business Innovation and Public Policy in the Information Technology Industry: 201
• Employment Workforce and Access: 215
• Technological Change Computerization and the Wage Structure: 217
• Implications for an Open Research Agenda: 245
• Extending Access to the Digital Economy to Rural and Developing Regions: 261
• Organizational Change: 293
• A Sociotechnical Approach: 295
• A Computational Organization Science Perspective: 325
• An Enacted View of the Digital Economy: 352
• Contributors: 381
• Index: 389

About the author

Erik Brynjolfsson, Schussel Family Professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Directorof the MIT Center for Digital Business, is the coeditor of Understanding the DigitalEconomy: Data, Tools, and Research (MIT Press).

Brian Kahin is Senior Fellow at the Computer & Communications Industry Association inWashington, DC. He is also Research Investigator and Adjunct Professor at the University of MichiganSchool of Information and a special advisor to the Provost's Office. He is a coeditor ofTransforming Enterprise (MIT Press, 2004) and many other books.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Understanding the Digital Economy: Data, Tools and Research
• Editors: Erik Brynjolfsson, Brian Kahin
• Contributor: Erik Brynjolfsson
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: MIT Press, 2002
• ISBN: 0262261634, 9780262261630
• Length: 401 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / E-Commerce / General; Business & Economics / Economic Conditions; Business & Economics / Economics / General; Technology & Engineering / General