There are three main drivers of economic globalization in the latter half of the 20th century: investment by transnational corporations, international trade, and the Internet. Whereas producer-driven and buyer-driven commodity chains characterize the phases of investment-based and trade-based globalization, respectively, the emergence of the Internet in the mid-1990s heralds a new age of digital globalization. The explosion in connectivity that is enabled by the Internet has launched an e-commerce revolution that is beginning to transform the structure of business-to-business (B2B) as well as business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions in global industries. New infomediaries that navigate access to rich information and greater reach by businesses and consumers are prominent in B2C digital networks. The Internet's most significant impact to date, however, has been in B2B markets, where e-commerce is reshaping the competitive dynamics and power alignments in traditional producer-driven and buyer-driven commodity chains such as automobiles and apparel.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abernathy, F. H. , Dunlop, J. T., Hammond, J. H., & Weil, D. (1999). A stitch in time: Lean retailing and the transformation of manufacturing-Lessons from the apparel and textile industries. New York: Oxford University Press.
2.
American Apparel Manufacturers Association . (1984). Apparel manufacturing strategies. Arlington, VA: Author.
3.
Barnet, R. J. , & Müller, R. E. (1974). Global reach: The power of the multinational corporations. New York: Simon & Schuster.
4.
Birnbaum, D. (1993). Importing garments through Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Third Horizon.
5.
Borrus, M. (1997). Left for dead: Asian production networks and the revival of U.S. electronics. In B. Naughton (Ed.), The China circle: Economics and technology in the PRC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (pp. 139-163). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
6.
Bulkeley, W. M. (2001, February 15). IBM turns around its PC unit, though skeptics still call it a drag. Wall Street Journal, p. B1.
7.
Cohen, S. S. , DeLong, J. B., & Zysman, J. (2000). Tools for thought: What is new and important about the “e-conomy”? (BRIE Working Paper No. 138). Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy.
8.
Covisint . (2001). General faqs about Covisint [Online]. Available: http://www.covisint.com/info/faq_gen.shtml
9.
Dell, M. (with Fredman, C.). (1999). Direct from Dell: Strategies that revolutionized an industry. New York: HarperCollins.
10.
Dicken, P. (1998). Global shift: Transforming the world economy (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford.
11.
Dickerson, K. G. (1995). Textiles and apparel in the global economy (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
12.
Doner, R. F. (1991). Driving a bargain: Automobile industrialization and Japanese firms in Southeast Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press.
13.
Dyer, J. H. (1996, July-August). How Chrysler created an American keiretsu. Harvard Business Review, pp. 42-56.
14.
Evans, P. , & Wurster, T. S. (2000). Blown to bits: How the new economics of information transforms strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
15.
Fine, C. H. (1998). Clockspeed: Winning industry control in the age of temporary advantage. Reading, MA: Perseus Books.
16.
Florida, R. , & Kenney, M. (1991). Transplanted organizations: The transfer of Japanese industrial organization to the United States. American Sociological Review, 56(3), 381-398.
17.
Gereffi, G. (1994). The organization of buyer-driven global commodity chains: How U.S. retailers shape overseas production networks. In G. Gereffi & M. Korzeniewicz (Eds.), Commodity chains and global capitalism (pp. 95-122). Westport, CT: Praeger.
18.
Gereffi, G. (1996). Global commodity chains: New forms of coordination and control among nations and firms in international industries. Competition & Change, 1(4), 427-439.
19.
Gereffi, G. (1998). Commodity chains and regional divisions of labor in East Asia. In E. M. Kim (Ed.), The four Asian tigers: Economic development and the global political economy (pp. 93-124). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
20.
Gereffi, G. (1999). International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain. Journal of International Economics, 48(1), 37-70.
21.
Gereffi, G. , & Korzeniewicz, M. (Eds.). (1994). Commodity chains and global capitalism. Westport, CT: Praeger.
22.
Gereffi, G. , & Wyman, D. (Eds.). (1990). Manufacturing miracles: Paths of industrialization in Latin America and East Asia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
23.
Hargittai, E. (2000). Open portals or closed gates? Channeling content on the World Wide Web. Poetics, 27(4), 233-253.
24.
Henderson, J. (1989). The globalisation of high technology production: Society, space, and semi-conductors in the restructuring of the modern world. New York: Routledge.
25.
Hill, R. C. (1989). Comparing transnational production systems: The automobile industry in the USA and Japan. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 13(3), 462-480.
26.
Hoover's, Inc. (2000). Company profiles. Austin, TX: Author.
27.
Johnson, P. (2000, April 28-29). E-commerce and the changing terms of competition: A view from within the sectors. Summary proceedings of workshop, University of California, Berkeley.
28.
Jones, J. (1995, March). Forces behind restructuring in U.S. apparel retailing and its effect on the U.S. apparel industry. Industry, Trade, and Technology Review, pp. 23-27.
29.
Kaplinsky, R. (1998). Globalisation, industrialisation, and sustainable growth: The pursuit of the nth rent (Discussion Paper 365). Brighton, UK: University of Sussex, Institute of Development Studies.
30.
Kumar, P. , & Holmes, J. (1997). Diffusion of HR/IR practices under lean production and North American economic integration: The case of the Canadian automotive parts industry. Unpublished manuscript, Queen's University.
31.
Magretta, J. (1998, March-April). The power of virtual integration: An interview with Dell Computer's Michael Dell. Harvard Business Review, pp. 73-84.
32.
Miller, J. P. (1997, September 15). Sara Lee plans “fundamental reshaping.”Wall Street Journal, pp. A3, A10.
33.
L'Observatoire Européen du Textile et de l'Habillement . (1995). The EU textile and clothing industry 1993/94. Brussels: Author.
34.
Pine, B. J. (1992). Mass customization: The new frontier in business competition. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
35.
Porter, M. (1990). The competitive advantage of nations. New York: Free Press.
36.
Reich, R. B. (1991). The work of nations: Preparing ourselves for 21st-century capitalism. New York: Knopf.
37.
Scheffer, M. (1994). The changing map of European textiles: Production and sourcing strategies of textile and clothing firms. Brussels: L'Observatoire Européen du Textile et de l'Habillement.
38.
Shopping around the Web: A survey of e-commerce. (2000, February 26). The Economist, pp. 9-54.
39.
Standard & Poor's. (2000a, October 5). Apparel & footwear. Industry Surveys, pp. 1-29.
40.
Standard & Poor's. (2000b, December 28). Autos & auto parts. Industry Surveys, pp. 1-33.
41.
Standard & Poor's. (2000c, March 16). Computers: Consumer services & the Internet. Industry Surveys, pp. 1-36.
42.
Standard & Poor's. (2000d, September 28). Computers: Consumer services & the Internet. Industry Surveys, pp. 1-40.
43.
Standard & Poor's. (2000e, December 14). Computers: Hardware. Industry Surveys, pp. 1-35.
44.
Standard & Poor's. (2001, January 25). Computers: Commercial services. Industry Surveys, pp. 1-30.
45.
Sturgeon, T. , & Florida, R. (1999). The world that changed the machine: Globalization and jobs in the automotive industry. Unpublished final report to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
46.
Taylor, C. (2000, September 4). All boxed in. Time, pp. 48-50.
47.
Untangling e-conomics . (2000, September 23). The Economist, pp. 5-40.
48.
U.S. Department of Commerce . (2000). Retailing. In U.S. industry & trade outlook 2000 (pp. 42-1 to 42-8). New York: McGraw Hill/U.S. Department of Commerce.
49.
U.S. International Trade Commission . (1997). Production sharing: Use of U.S. components and materials in foreign assembly operations, 1992-1995 (Publication 3032). Washington, DC: Author.
50.
Vernon, R. (1971). Sovereignty at bay: The multinational spread of U.S. enterprises. New York: Basic Books.
51.
Whitley, R. (1996). Business systems and global commodity chains: Competing or complementary forms of economic organisation?Competition & Change, 1(4), 411-425.
52.
Wingfield, N. (2000, August 24). Amazon restructures its deals with e-tailers. Wall Street Journal, p. B14.
53.
Womack, J. P. , Jones, D. T., & Roos, D. (1990). The machine that changed the world. New York: Macmillan.
