This review of literature begins with a series
of books on technology and globalisation edited by Daniele Archibugi, Jonathan
Michie, and Jeremy Howells (1997, 1998, and 1999).
According to Avgerou (2003),
IS innovation is the perpetual re-making of ICT (Internet and Communication
Technologies) artefacts and organizational practice in specific social
settings. In her empirical, interpretive study of FRIENDS project in Kerala,
India, Madon (2003) points out, ‘IS innovation is always shaped within
specific, historically-developed social contexts’. Innovation is taking place
every day, especially among institutions adopting the globalisation of
technology. Looking at the big Internet players now, it is the investors like
venture-capitalist firms who support the initial concept of idea, rather than
the nation-state although governments have fundamental and non-replaceable
roles in supporting technical change.
It’s known that innovation and its policies have long focused on the
supply side, neglecting the importance of demand side (Pianta 1998; Swann 1998;
Edquist 2001). Users, the customers who exchange the information with business
institutions over the web on a daily basis, have brought in demand as an
important determinant of innovation and have played a crucial role in shaping technology
in the past decade, when business firms along with public institutions such as
universities and research centres play a crucial role in fostering
technological advance.
As the world globalises further, more and more collaboration
tools get distributed and commoditized. This newfound power can be found
ubiquitously, as in the open-source software communities such as Linux,
OpenOffice and Mozilla’s Firefox, and as in online communities like Wikipedia.
Among the big media groups are BBC, MSNBC, and the Guardian to allow the
individuals, the citizens, to contribute their stories, photos, and videos
taken from their digital devices, on July 7th, 2005, the day of
London’s underground bombings. (Friedman, 2006)
Avgerou (2003) raises that the shift to buy-in-the-market
from built-in-house has transformed the facet of IT development from life-cycle
model to implementation-oriented process. With this view, Cornford (2003)
argues that the development activity per se is no longer about making something
specific for specific organizational or social context, but rather is
inherently generic and comprises weak links to the localized context. Not only
does novel development shape the technology, but also provide a situation that
implicitly helps to facilitate the convergence to globalisation. This is an
example of technology shaping globalisation.
Given Mitev’s case study (2004), which interprets the
troubled adoption of the “Sabre” computer reservation system (CSR) by France in
1990s, we are unable, or unwilling, to deny that ICT cannot benefit us all, if
to the same degree, partly due to the fact that we do not live in a same, equal
world, as each individual country is different to some extent (i.e., different
structure, different systems); however, with which, governments should
therefore customise universalist theory to fit their own needs in embracing
globalisation and implementing ICT.
To borrow from Monteiro (2004), in getting much detailed,
empirical work relative to mobile phones, there have been some questions to
ask: how are phones used symbolically to gesture membership to certain
communities? In what ways do phones
express and present externalized images of identity? What does the compact and abbreviated language that teenagers use
for messages signify?
Speaking of
the ‘use’ of the Internet, Monteiro (2004) conceptualises it as one of many
manifestations whereby we present ourselves. He suggests that the Internet,
outpacing the traditional Computer Supported Cooperative Working (CSCW), in
some aspects forms identity and self-presentation different from
strategic/goal-oriented behavior embedded in the way IS is implemented.