Size, Structure and Growth of the U.S. Information Economy

Apte, Uday; Nath, Hiranya K.

doi:10.1007/978-0-387-36892-4_1

Cited by 46 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…According to Apte and Nath (2007), knowledge workers already account for 70 % of the labor force in the USA and for more than 60 % of its added value. Despite the importance of knowledgeintensive work, little is known about how to improve it compared to manual work processes.…”

Section: If the Formal Organization Is The Skeleton Of A Company Thementioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Informal Communication Networks – A Case Study

Fischbach

Gloor

Schoder

2008

Bus. Inf. Syst. Eng.

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It is becoming more and more important for knowledge workers to increase their productivity. However, there is a general lack of (semi-)automated, IT-supported data collection and evaluation approaches that allow insights into the processes and structures of an enterprise's internal networks and the activities of its knowledge workers. The article presents a prototype of an IT-supported instrument ("Social Badges") that supports automatic collection of informal, personal interaction between (knowledge) workers within an enterprise. The authors' aim is to introduce a novel approach which improves data quality over legacy methods. The approach uses Social Network Analysis (SNA) to make it easier for executives to analyze and manage informal communications networks. Its practical applicability is demonstrated by a case study. IntroductionIf the formal organization is the skeleton of a company, the informal is the central nervous system driving the collective thought processes, actions, and reactions of its business units.( Krackhardt and Hanson 1993, p. 104) Both the volume and importance of knowledge workers are growing as industrialized countries go through structural changes towards service-oriented societies (Albach 1999;Drucker 1999;Davenport 2005). According to Apte and Nath (2007), knowledge workers already account for 70 % of the labor force in the USA and for more than 60 % of its added value. Despite the importance of knowledgeintensive work, little is known about how to improve it compared to manual work processes. This is because the work performed by knowledge workers is complex and hard to measure (Aral et al. 2006; Mangelsdorf 2008; Ramírez and Nembhard 2004). It can be assumed that the way information is exchanged and distributed will have an influence on the relative productivity of groups and actors (Aral et al. 2006;Cross et al. 2003). The modern enterprise's productivity, efficiency and the ability to innovate thus all require an efficient structure and culture with respect to the exchange of knowledge between employees ( Knowledge is mainly exchange via informal, social communication networks whose structures often differ greatly from the enterprise's organizational structure and workflows (Krackhardt and Hanson 1993). At the same time, these structures have a decisive influence on the ability of employees, workgroups and the whole enterprise to deliver superior performance as they determine how quickly information can be propagated across a network, or whether stake holding employees will be able to contact each other (Cross and Parker 2004). In this context Cross et al. (2003, p. 8) emphasize that "one of the most consistent findings in the social science literature is that whom you know often has a great deal to do with what you come to know".Within this context the management of informal communication networks between enterprise staff becomes strategically significant (Davenport and Prusak 1998;Cross et al. 2003;Berglind and Scales 1987). Knowledge management focuses on those parts o...

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Section: If the Formal Organization Is The Skeleton Of A Company Thementioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Informal Communication Networks – A Case Study

Fischbach

Gloor

Schoder

2008

Bus. Inf. Syst. Eng.

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“…Machlup, 1962Machlup, , 1980Porat, 1977;Karunaratne, 1986;Apte & Nath, 2004;Apte et al, 2008;2012;Wolff, 2005;Nath, 2009;2011). To remedy that gap, the present paper offers preliminary results from the first ever identification of the Swedish information economy, which shows that Sweden is presently indeed dominated by its information economy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…A chief reason to that limitation is the difficulty to measure and quantify national economies at the macro level with regard to information activities and their economic value creation. The number of recent studies that attempt to quantify the size, structure and dynamics of an information economy at macro level has therefore been relatively limited (Karunaratne, 1986;Apte & Nath, 2004;Apte et al, 2008;2012;Wolff, 2005;Nath, 2009;2011). The key message delivered by these studies is that the US information economy accounts now for more than half of the total US economy, measured in terms of GNP and the share of workers; and that the information economy is continuing to grow.…”

Section: Conceptual Research Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…agriculture, manufacturing). Apte and Nath (2004) provided a critical assessment of Porat's methodology and suggested specific improvements that may be made to obtain a more plausible measure of the size and structure of an information economy. (2006) pointed that analysis of the metrics of the 'information society' are still far from optimal and continue to suffer from measurement challenges; the present investigation attempts to incorporate these remarks in its conceptual approach.…”

Section: Conceptual Research Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Swedish Information Economy : A preliminary account

Pashkevich

Haftor

Pashkevich

2017

Dilemmas 2015 Papers From the 18th Annual International Conference Dilemmas for Human Services: Organizing, Designing and Manag

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The recent developments and adoptions of digital technologies give rise to the growth of information economies, understood as an aggregate of economic activities that produce informational outputs. Several key characteristics of an information economy differ to the conventional economic wisdom derived from the industrial age, which may impose governmental policy implications and therefore constitutes a key question: how to govern the newly emerged information economy with the thinking of the industrial age economy. Resolving this problem requires, among others, comprehensive understanding of information economies. To that end, Sweden is among the most advanced adopters of digital technologies and represents therefore a suitable empirical base for the investigation of an information economy. This paper offers preliminary results from a first ever account of the Swedish information economy in terms of its value created, jobs and wages; this account shows that the Swedish economy is dominated by its information economy, which requires a careful attention of policy makers.

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“…9 6 These calculations underestimate the information component of the health sector as they take no account of the initial 'screening'-type decisions of medical practitioners, sorting and storing patient records, etc. For early arguments about measuring the information economy and empirical results, see Machlup (1962), Porat (1977) and, more recently, Apte and Nath (2007). 7…”

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confidence: 99%