The Early Populism: Robespierre and Jacobins

The first sign of somewhat articulated populism in history appeared with the “incorruptible” (Robespierre) and the Jacobins (see Jacobins as a precursor of Populism in reference) who promised a reign of freedom, equality and “virtue”. Inspired by the American Revolution and the enlightenment and particularly by Rousseau, the French Revolution (1989) in its early phases was the early signal of the populism movement. In his social contract, Rousseau (1712-1778) asserted that “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” He agreed with Locke (1632-1704) that the “individual should never be forced to give up his or her natural rights to a king”. Rousseau went as far as stating that people should obey the general will and “will be forced to be free”. Led by Maximilian Robespierre, the Jacobins started the first state-led “legitimized” reign of terror in history in order to “force men to be free”. The motto of Robespierre “the will of the people” transformed into “The people is sublime, but individuals are weak,” is somewhat the main foundation of modern populism. Granted, the reign of terror was short, Robespierre was executed by guillotine (July 28, 1794), but the motto continued to inspire many revolutions, many social movements, but also many tragedies, and many farces centuries later. It is unfortunate that the ideals of the French Revolution and the fundamental beliefs (government must have the freedom of all its citizens as its most fundamental objective) of J.J. Rousseau are used today by political opportunists to gain power and spread hate, racism, xenophobia, and nativism. But, this is another story. We will continue to focus on populism evolution during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.  

Populism in the USA in the 19^th Century

The populist movement in the USA appeared with the “Know-Nothings” movement in 1840. The “know-Nothings” was a xenophobic political movement opposing the massive arrivals of German and Irish Catholic immigrants. Native-born Protestants considered the new immigrants as a danger to the American culture and to its religious identity. Moreover, they are viewed as an ultimate job stealer. The know-Nothings refer to the story of the movement. The movement started as secret societies. When members were asked about their ties to these groups, members were instructed to say they “knew nothing.” In 1855 they worked on the open and formed the American Party with a program that limits immigration and a 21-year residency for citizenship. They went on to participate in the 1856 Federal Election and won 21.6%. Later, they split between anti-slavery and pro-slavery which fatally disintegrated the movement. However, nativism survived and rises every time a new wave of immigration happens.  

Late 19^th centuries far from the goals of the French Revolution and far from the “know-Nothings” nativism, a populist movement galvanized mainly by a coalition of farmers and other groups (e.g., labor, unions, miners, and marginalized people) rallied against the power of monopolies, the Gold Standard and financial establishments represented by Wall Street. Farmers who were financially squeezed by the sharp decrease of cotton prices in the South and a severe drought in the Middle West, on one hand, and by bankers charging exorbitant lending rates and railroad monopolies charging high prices for transporting products to market on the other, were far from revolutionaries. Farmers whose main complaints inspired the People’s Party asked for lower credit and lower cost of transportation of their outputs to markets and proposed nationalization of railways companies. Although the political program of the People’s Party is far from European social radical grievances, their discourse was not from the French Revolution ideals and the European radical movement.

Mary Elizabeth Lease (1850-1933), a suffrage advocate, a leader of the People’s Party, populist, author, and orator believed that monopolies are transforming people of America into “wage slaves” and believed “Wall Street” owns the country. Long before the recent “Occupy WallStreet” movement, she stated that “It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street.”

These two populist movements continue today greatly influencing politics in the USA.

Populism in Latin America

The first movement of populism dominated Latin American politics from the 1930s to the end of the 1960s. Populist leaders gained power in Brazil with Getúlio Vargas, in Argentina with Juan Perón, and in Ecuador with José María Velasco Ibarra.

Vergas assumed power as interim president from 1930–1934, constitutional president from 1934–1937, then as a dictator from 1937–1945, and finally as a democratically elected president from 1951-1954. He distinguished himself as a nationalist, industrialist, and particularly, as a populist favoring welfare that earned him the nickname “The Father of the Poor”.

Populism reached its summit with Juan Perón who was elected president of Argentina in 1946 thanks to his mass movement “los descamisados” or “the shirtless.” He was elected President of Argentina three times, from 1946 -1955. Then from 1973 until his death in1974. He rallied the excluded masses around his main supporters, “the shirtless”, against the establishment, the corrupt riches and the self-serving elites, by promising a more prosperous future. Peronism as a populist movement is somewhat unique because it draws support from all “social fabric” with the populists at the far right and populists at the left as driving forces. Peronism still active in Argentina and represented mainly by the Justicialist Party.  Many following Argentinian presidents are considered Peronists. The last Peronist presidents are Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Kirchner.

José María Velasco Ibarra became president in 1934. He was in and out five times. He completed only once a full term (1952-1956). For the other four terms, he was removed by a military coup and reinstalled again through a military coup. His last term was 1968-1972. As an excellent orator, Velasco Ibarra can captivate people with eloquence, becoming a leader of the masses from the left and the right without any clear political program. His rhetoric is not significantly different from Vergas and Perón. He emphasized moral reform and call the honest common people to rise against the corrupt and selfish oligarchy. 

During the 1990s, several Latin Americans countries were experiencing severe economic crises. A second populist movement emerged. Populists seized the opportunity and again like in the first movement from the 1930’s to the 1960’s, they blamed the governing elites and the bad governance. Contrary to the first populist movements from 1930’s to 1960’s, however, they didn’t blame foreign powers. Once they seized the power elected leaders in Argentina, Peru, and Brazil tried economic liberalism supported by the IMF and the World Bank. They succeeded somewhat to foster growth and stabilize the economy. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long and the situation worsened during the 21^st century.

The third and maybe the last populist movement began early 21^st century until today. The rhetoric of the first populist movement came back heavily with some difference. The blame went to foreign powers (read the USA) and corrupt elites. The difference with the first movement is political orientation. It is clearly oriented toward the left with the explicitly socialist program and against the capitalist system and free market. Leaders of this movement such as Ortega in Nicaragua (followers are known as Sandinistas), Morales in Bolivia (followers are known as Masistas), and Chávez (succeeded by his loyalist Maduro) in Venezuela (Chavez’s followers call themselves Chavistas) are engaged in a political battle to help the people gain their sovereignty through the election of constituent assemblies to write new constitutions that could be ratified by referendums. One can characterize the actual tragedy of Venezuela as a direct consequence of changing the constitution to fit the populism and the rhetoric of Chávez.

Modern Populism: Past Glory and Nativism Drives Current Populism

Modern Populism in the USA: Modern populism in the USA is carrying a long-standing of American populism: left-wing populism and right-wing populism. Sanders’srhetoric fits somewhat the late 19^th century rhetoric of the left. The rhetoric of the establishment around President Trump fits also a kind of American populism that goes back to the 1840 “Know-nothings” movement and the American Party with some traces in the Huey Long’s Share Our Wealth movement in Louisiana to the 1930s populist movement. “Make America great again” is the actual mantra of the modern American populist.

Modern Populism in Europe:  The wave of populism is spreading in many European democracies. During the last decades, populist parties in Western Europe and Eastern are increasingly popular. Led by authoritarian leaders, they are gaining a good percentage of the popular vote and aspiring to gain or hold power. They succeed to gain power in Greece, Hungary, and Italy (a coalition of right-wing and left-wing). Populist’s political party are very active and growing in Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria, and Britain.

Modern populists in Britain are represented by Margaret Thatcher, Nigel Farage, and David Owen. All three gleaned their themes and rhetoric from the American populism and the glory of the Victorian past. For example, former Prime Minister Thatcher militancy tended to bring-up back the “vigorous virtues of her Hometown Grantham” on the one hand and the “Victorian values” on the other. The combination of the “vigorous virtues” of heartland people combined with the glorious “values” of the past constitute the foundation of the current populism which is a mix of nationalism, nativism, and provincialism. The motto (of the Brexiteers) is “Take back control”.

Modern populism in France is refers to the current “Rassemblement National” (RN) which evolved from the Front National created by Jean Marie Le Pen the father Marine Le Pen. The rebranded “Rassemblement National” or National Rally is led by Marine Le Pen. She is a resolute anti-globalization, somewhat anti-euro, anti-immigrants (cultural nativism), and protectionist. The RN social and economic positioning is complex. The party leans toward egalitarianism, supporting social welfare programs and demand-side economics. Marine Le Pen is an enthusiast and firm supporter of the Brexit. She is particularly a real fighter to own the French past.

The Unescapable Trap: The Lesson from Latin America Populism

What can we learn from Latin America Populism? Populists’ aim is to gain legitimacy through the support of the masses, whereas they are authoritarian and prefer top-down control. The goal of the mass movement (right or left) is to increase and protect their personal power, and not to fundamentally change the governance mechanism system.

Populism experiences, particularly, in Latin America but also in many African Nations, Arab World and part of Asia show that populists build and maintain their power by holding together diverse political coalitions. To succeed, they tend to develop very expensive social welfare programs, nationalize key economic sectors, and raise tariffs. Moreover, they developed from the 1950s until 1970s a new economic development that seek of replacing foreign goods particularly machineries and automotive components by native industry. This thinking was developed and supported by well and respected economists such as Hans Singer, Raul Prebisch, and Celso Furtado is popularized under “Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI).” Unfortunately, this promising model didn’t deliver the desired economic growth and was abandoned by the 1980s. The resulting of the welfare largess without real growth and without productivity improvement led to high inflation, businesses scaling back investments, accumulated public debts, and economic crises follow. This story has played out in Vargas’s Brazil, Chavez’s Venezuela, and Perón’s and Kirchner’s Argentina. The story has played out also, in Nasser’s Egypt, Indira Gandhi’s India, in Iran, and somewhat in Islamic populism countries such as Turkey.

Summing-up: Populism did not come out of nowhere and suddenly. It has a long history that goes back to the French Revolution, late 19^th century in the USA when a coalition of farmers, miners, and a marginalized fringe of population rallied against transportation monopolies and the rising power of finance establishment. Later in the 1930s and mid-20^th century, it developed in Latin America with the Peronism in Argentina as its main symbol. The 1920s and 1930s populism in Germany and to a lesser degree in Italy and Japan produced the worst crime in the long history of humankind. Globalization, technology progress, population growth, and climate change are on the verge to trigger the 21^st populist movement that is not presaging very well. 

     The second major problem that slows or hinders emerging technologies adoption and deployment is good data. Granted, there is data everywhere and coming torrentially from various sources. However, AI/ML/DL, IoT, and BlockChain deployment require good data. Good Data is paramount to any decision-making. To be trusted, measures of data include accuracy, completeness, timeliness, consistency, and uniqueness. Today, a large majority of organizations (up to 80%) believe their data cannot be trusted to deploy AI/ML/DL. Managers across industries use analytics for visualizing trends, status of their finance, sales, productivity, and more in the form of graphs, charts, or other representations. They assume the data used is a good fit to business reality. Hence, they take decisions based on these assumptions.

     Management of emerging supply chain technologies is completely different from management of “old” technologies of the past such as EDI, ERP or even Cloud-ERP. They are deployed as running complete systems. True, they were in many initiatives implemented as pilot projects to experiment and learn. However, they come as a complete system.

The emerging technologies is inherently dependent on good data. They are deployed to take advantage of the torrent of data and Big Data. Machine Learning algorithms are useless if trained on corrupt data. Experimentation is key to create a kind of analytics culture. ML (supervised and unsupervised) algorithms can be used to clean the data and allow to exploit and experiment rapidly. Therefore, ML algorithms should be deployed and used to automatically clean data and make data quality available for “trainable” ML applications. For example, to develop a reliable classification and clustering models, there are various supervised machine learning algorithms to classify and unsupervised algorithms to cluster for data cleansing. Data scientists can use clustering algorithms to detect outliers (an outlier is a data point that differs significantly from other observations) and “dirty” data. Classification algorithms (which are supervised ML) can be applied to assign the correct class label or detect duplicate data. Likewise, deep learning Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) can be deployed to generate potential domains. Cleaning is not highlighted too often. Yet, it is critical for quality analytics and prediction. Powerful algorithms without quality data training will yield wrong prediction and prescription. The bottleneck for organizations is data scientists’ talent. Data scientists are hard to find and to train. New emerging technology-based supply chain requires the training of scientists with a new culture that think beyond “cost and efficiency metrics.” 

Summing-up:  Measures and ROI can slow or hinder supply chain emerging technologies. The scarcity of finding good people to experiment and exploit these technologies is a major barrier for technology adoption. Considering the challenges ahead, organizations should hire and start training data scientists capable of creating a new culture, that think beyond “cost and efficiency metrics.” Moreover, organizations would consider applications that will speed-up decision-making, increase asset velocity, and create new performance analytics in real-time that enhance visibility, trust and mutual understanding between trading partners, and other new capabilities that are of important value to customers.

Technologies are Revolutionize eLearning

Today, many technologies integrating many characteristics of hypertext/multimedia/ hypermedia systems (HmH) and Web-based learning are revolutionizing eLearning. For example, intelligent mobile phones embody those characteristics such as digital sound, images, text, graphics, video, and music.

The rapid development of functionality and capability of Learning Management System (LMS – e.g., Moodle) is a major driver of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)’ popularity and eLearning providers (for-profit and non-profit organizations).

Hypertext, multimedia, hypermedia, and new emerging learning technologies will accelerate eLearning adoption and deployment. LMS technology trends are exploding. All these technologies combine both visual and auditory channels. Combining visual and auditory channels increases knowledge retention. Multimedia allows the stimulation of learners’ both visual and auditory channels, resulting in better understanding and learning. Emerging technologies embody more innovations, helping the development of personalized tools.

Driven by mobile intelligent phones, tablets, bandwidth (5G is coming soon), and social networking, learning can be achieved everywhere through a multitude of expert-authored videos, expert blogs, tweets, and webcasts. The huge growth of internal and external content is encouraging LMS providers to design and deliver a learning system with enhanced functionality and capability. In this environment, content is sliced into small segments with more relevant information and knowledge. That is why mobile-based learning (mLearning) and MicroLearning (learning method that fits anytime and anyplace). Smartphones with their enhanced features allow learners to share content, images, video, audio, documents and so forth, hence fostering P2P–peer to peer- learning. P2P is an effective collaborative method that facilitates the transfer of explicit knowledge (codified and easy to transfer). Because of enhanced functionality of technology, part of tacit knowledge (sticky knowledge and costly to transfer) can be transferred through the P2P mechanism making it an effective way of learning. British Telecom saved 12 million dollars per year by using an open-source learning solution, encouraging peer teaching.

eLearning, and its driver MOOCs, is the early development of an open participatory learning infrastructure that may, in the future, become a global learning ecosystem, which includes a focus on peer-learning. Peer learning will evolve to group formation that shares an area of interest where members develop shared understanding and trust, allowing them to work, innovate, and develop entrepreneurial projects together. P2P based learning will foster a kind of peer-to-peer society, where everyone is able to teach and learn from others. This kind of P2P learning will enhance collaboration and develop a distributed shared knowledge, resulting in life- long learning.

Social Learning (web 2.0) is rising as a way of learning. “Social learning theories help us to understand how people learn in social contexts” (Vygotsky, 1978). Indeed, when people interact with each other, learning will result. It is a powerful form of learning, particularly in the workplace. Discussion forums, note sharing, and other forms of interaction using collaborative platforms help people generate and share ideas. Social learning is becoming a feature of LMSs. Social learning is different from social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Social learning is designed for the professional environment and not for ad-hoc interaction.

ICT continues to develop rapidly (e.g., 5G) along with awareness of the need to increase accessibility for learning, reskilling, and training. Emerging technologies are opening-up huge learning opportunities for large masses of individuals.

eLearning in Cloud computing Environment

Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing services such as storing, accessing data and programs, networking, databases, business intelligence, learning, and more over the Internet. Cloud Computing provides flexibility, an easy adaptation to eLearning’s value proposition, computational requirements, and easy network accessibility allowing learning institutions to respond promptly to the exponential growth of eLearning. Cloud computing offers eLearning institutions scalability, accommodating a large number of students enrolling in a MOOC which cannot be handled by a conventional web server. Moreover, pay-per-use and realized savings in new hardware and additional software licences make cloud computing a kind of computation paradigm shift.

Cloud Computing provides faster and universal access, flexible use of resources and economies of scale, and lower operating costs. The development of cloud computing allows business enterprises to scale exponentially. Likewise, cloud computing enables eLearning platforms to develop and become responsive, fast, and easy to scale-up, reaching everybody worldwide who has access to Internet. The progress of cloud computing technologies can provide quality education and enhance quality learning experiences on a large scale all over the world. All these characteristics confer to cloud computing the role of a sound alternative to eLearning.

Game-Based Learning:

Game-based learning is on the rise. The emergence of the gamification concept shows the importance of this phenomenon. Gamification refers to a process of taking an existing website, an online community or a learning application and integrating games into it in order to “increase motivation” (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017). The ultimate goal is to combine enjoyment and involvement by attracting students’ attention and encouraging them to improve their learning and understanding.

Adaptive learning:

Adaptive learning is rising as an effective method of learning, training or reskilling. Learners have different backgrounds, experiences, and skill levels. Consequently, their needs are different from one group to another and from one individual to another. Adaptive learning is an automatic process that filters and recommends content to learners based on their backgrounds, education levels, skill levels, and experiences. An Automated intelligent tool that learns, adapts, and somewhat behaves and acts autonomously, allows users, based on their profile data – revealed choices – interests, to display needed content. Consequently, adaptive learning intelligent software allows learners to move rapidly through materials they already know and focus on those that they need to enhance their learning and improve their skills. Adaptive technologies, therefore, can reduce the time it takes learners to become knowledgeable. This improves the effectiveness of training and learning programs for business enterprises and academic learning as well. Looking ahead, adaptive learning can potentially improve dramatically learning by relieving learners from information overload and useless information, making future learning very promising.

MicroLearning:

The rise of smartphones and ubiquitous Internet (Anywhere, Anytime, Any Device) is fostering MicroLearning. Courses are designed in small learning units and short-term assignment activities giving learners the perception of being in control of what and when they are learning. This method of learning is particularly appropriate for specific easy problems,

leveraging easy search and the use of entering keywords. Mobile applications are not costly to design and maintain. Moreover, they are ubiquitous and embody the capabilities to adapt to a full-scale platform or a website. In the near future, mobile applications will revolutionize the entire learning industry.

Content Curation:

Content curation is increasingly used as a learning tool. Curation services are used both by business enterprises and end-users. Content curation is a process of collecting, organizing, and presenting relevant information from reliable sources related to domain areas or specific topics in a manner that enhances understanding. Curation allows organizations to customize eLearning and deliver it through mLearning.

Leveraging the Extended Business Enterprise:

LMS’s capability allows business enterprises, or any organization, to use a central system that deploys unique learning experiences for various teams of learners throughout the supply chain. This will help to interface and develop a kind of shared understanding of business processes and enhance visibility. Moreover, each learner of any teamwork will be able to view content curated to his/her specific needs. Content curation as a process of gathering information relevant to a particular area of interest can be valuable for all actors along the supply chain.

Advanced Learning Devices:

Advanced learning devices play a major role in eLearning. The new emerging devices for learning allow students to learn in a way that meets their needs. Advanced learning devices are making learning more inclusive, helping learners with certain disabilities such as dyslexia. Audiobooks, dictation software, and reading applications are already helping many students. The spread of AI devices, that speak and interact with the learner, is facilitating greater understanding. Moreover, it presents an opportunity for instructors to encourage learner involvement, thereby creating more participation and deep learning environments for all students.

Authur: Mokhtar Amami

Excerpt from from Amami, M., “Open Innovation and Web technologies”. Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems, Samos (Greece), 3-5 September 2015. AIS Library

The Global and dynamic competitive business environment is forcing private and public organizations to look beyond their traditional boundaries for new ideas, new innovations, and reliable and innovative network of suppliers. During the last decade Open Innovation (OI) has been the focus of academia and professionals due to their ever-increasing role in time-based competition, customer satisfaction of tomorrow needs, shrinking innovation cycles and rising customer expectations.

OI is a relatively a new paradigm shift for business enterprises (Chesbrough, 2003; 2007a, 2007b) that aims to seize the potentialities of the web and abandon innovation secrecy paradigm to a kind of paradigm of knowledge sharing. The ultimate goal is to expand markets for external use of innovation (Chesbrough, 2006, 2011), reduce costs of internal innovation and capture the widely distributed knowledge in order to buy/license inventions/Innovations or processes from other businesses.

Although open innovation is attracting more and more researchers, the main problems, however, of creating ideas and sharing them along the supply chain are hard to resolve. In the same token, scanning and capturing new technologies through a web of inventors and startups, or any other channels that can be used as the basis for technology transfer, internal development and joint development exploration and exploitation are even much harder. Granted, a vertical and stable supply chain “à la Toyota, BMW or Walmart” makes the transfer and joint development relatively easy. In fact, the pivot (Toyota, etc.) in this kind of vertical and stable supply chain control the microcosm of process innovation from suppliers to consumers. Suppliers’ involvement in new product development in this type of supply chain is well known and well documented. However, they are still underused, and their innovation process is far from integrated in an open innovation process model.

The open innovation process model is much more challenging than the ecosystem of the vertical and stable supply chain. The pitfalls of this rising model are somewhat numerous.
The new open innovation process model requires new management competencies for managing fuzzy boundaries, inter-organizational relationships, inter-organizational constraints, and bottlenecks. Second, it requires the development of web based OI strategies to scan and channel ideas, knowledge, and innovations from varieties of actors distributed around the globe and integrate them in an open innovation process that expand markets through Licensing/Buying, Spin-off and Joint Development.

There are key central problems that must be analyzed, evaluated, and harnessed in order to seize the opportunities of OI strategies. These are absorptive capacity, complementary assets, intellectual property (IP) and control, networks and the rise of Peer-Production and Network Externalities and Dominant Design.

Absorptive capacity

Absorptive capacity is critical to organizations to open their internal R&D and start transacting ideas, scientific and technological knowledge across their frontiers. Organizations must have the

capability to scan, identify technological opportunities, assimilate, and integrate them in a profitable business model. Cohen & Levinthal (1990) already underlined this capability of absorptive capacity for firms to generate gains from recognizing, assimilating, and adopting external knowledge. Recently other researchers have arrived at similar conclusion. Networked companies with high scientific and technical competencies tend to favor OI. Silicon Valley (SV) is an illustration of this phenomenon. The performance of SV cluster is the concentration of high scientific and technological skills that materialize in intense knowledge exchange and fast innovations and adoption (Saxenian, 1999; Kenny & Burg, 1999; Castilla et al., 2000). Absorptive Capacity can be developed by focusing on the following dimensions:

Awareness: Awareness requires the development of specific processes by which an organization scans for weak signal and uncover knowledge and emerging technologies.

Association: Association requires processes by which an organization uncovers the value of new ideas, prototypes, products, or emerging technologies

Assimilation: Assimilation requires the design of processes that fit organizational design by which the organization dissimulate and debate these new ideas, prototypes, products, or emerging technologies to create, capture and deliver value to customers.

Adoption and Implementation: Adoption and implementation requires the development of processes by which an organization transacts ideas, products, or technologies for competitive sustainability.

Complementary Assets

Complementary assets (CA) are those capabilities (apart from those underpinning the technology) that firms need to exploit the technology (e.g., manufacturing, marketing, reputation, complementary technologies, brand names, supply chain networks, etc.).
The main idea, Teece asserts, that the more complementary assets a company possesses, the more likelihood the company will take advantage of sourcing external scientific and technological knowledge. Teece (1998) distinguished two types of complementary assets: freely available and unimportant and tightly held (kept proprietary) and important. The appropriability regime determines the importance of gains that companies can derive from external knowledge sourcing. Large companies with large assets pool of complementary assets (CA) and tightly held are more oriented toward sourcing external knowledge. The large pool of CA provides potentialities of integrating external knowledge or buying start-ups or buying even large companies. CA, therefore, are important to commercialize innovations and collaborate with other companies.

Intellectual Property: Appropriability and control

Under the traditional innovation paradigm, secrecy, and control of intellectual property (IP) are the driving force for a company’s ability to capture innovation value. Under the new paradigm of organizing Innovation (Open Innovation), the risk for loss of IP control increases particularly when innovation exchange flows are with competitors (Greenhalgh & Rogers, 2010). The dilemma of OI is not easy to overcome if the firm avoids developing a kind of understanding and trust relationships based on adaptability to market and technology shifts and alignment of business interests.
IP control and protection refers to the extent to which technology can be protected from imitation. Control and protection depend on the degree to which scientific and technological

knowledge is tacit (non-codified). IP control and protection depend on the kind of appropriability regimes: “tight” (e.g., Coca-Cola recipe) vs “weak” (e.g., standard consumer electronic).

Networks and the Rise of Peer-Production

Metcalf’s Law states a network’s value grows proportionately to the square of the number of nodes within the network. Although one can dispute the accuracy of this law, intuitively it can provide the most casual observer with insight into the value of networks. Today, all organizations and individuals recognize the value of networks. In the domain of OI the power of networks to source scientific and technological knowledge (buying and selling) is paramount. The creation and thoroughly designed networks can support the development of a kind of understanding and ultimately a community of trust.

Web technologies-based networks enhance inter-organizational relationships and interpersonal relationships (Johnson & Duxbury, 2010). These relationships are fundamental to cross- organizational frontiers resources exchange. This environment of web technologies-based networks facilitates the strategic roles of OI community drivers. They are external brokers, internal brokers, technology entrepreneurs (P&G), champions (e.g., CEO of P&G) and Capital Venture/Angel entrepreneurs, embodying competencies that allow them to manage cross- organizational relationships to facilitate bidirectional flows of scientific and technological knowledge. These drivers/leaders are key in diffusing technology, mobilizing volunteers, organizing social networks (Castella et al., 2000) and in managing issues such as technology path divergence (forking problems) and fragmentation of innovation process (balkanization problems) (Fleming & Waguespack, 2007). OI environment requires reputation and trust from OI community leaders to create and sustain an Open Innovation Ecosystem. The key roles of these leaders allow them to resolve issues through social brokerage in connecting OI actors and technological boundary spanning through a process of scanning, identifying, translating, and relaying scientific and technological knowledge across organizational frontiers (Fleming & Waguespack, 2007). Because of their key roles as organizational frontiers spanners, OI community hold a higher degree of trust. Because they have an early access to information and knowledge, they have enormous impact on technology diffusion and control. They can develop and implement varieties of strategies to different groups in an effort to hedge on alternative development. Case studies (e.g., P&G, Peugeot, PG, Coca Cola, etc.) and literature review seem to suggest companies that invest in technology gatekeepers not only enhance the flows of scientific and technological knowledge but can immerse themselves in a OI ecosystem that support strategic technological sustainability.

Web technologies fostered a new mode of production system that helped the emergence of the rise of the commons and new mode of producing and channeling information and knowledge. The old alternative modes of production, Markets and Hierarchies, are characterized by either high coordination costs or production costs. Web technologies support groups of individuals collaborate on large-scale projects following a diverse cluster of motivational drives and social signals. This web based emerging collaboration is characterized by both low coordination costs and low production particularly when the object of production is information or culture. Because of web technologies and the wide diffusion of computers, communications capabilities, and increasingly mobile technologies, OI community will play in the future a major role in scientific and technological knowledge exchange among organizations.

The rise of the commons favor peer-participation where community membership is characterized by anti-credentials and there is no a priori selection criteria for participation (Bauwens, 2006).

Low barriers to participate increase the pool of participants and increase the probability of solutions to problems and particularly the new flow of ideas. Moreover, the lower costs (almost null) associated with peer production allow OI community to play fully their roles without organizational financial constraints.
Web technologies-based peer production foster diversity of theories, ideas, and perspectives and consequently improve quality outcomes through interactions in innovation open ecosystem. Peer production system can be characterized by independence, pluralism, representation, decentralized decision-making, and autonomous participation (O’Mahony, 2007). This environment of production can provide scientific and technological contribution to firms that invest in gatekeepers.

Network Externalities and Dominant Design

Network externalities effect occurs when open innovation increases the participation of users which increases the value of products for more users. On the demand side, the telephone service illustrates the network externalities. The benefit that people get from the telephone service depends on the extent to which other people also use this service. In other words, network externalities effect happens when “the attractiveness of a product to customers increases with the use of that product by others” (Fisher & Rubinfeld, 2000). Firms with dominant design (standard system) tend to gain enormously from direct network externalities (when an increase in the size of a network increases the number of others). They tend also to gain from indirect network externalities (when an increase in the size of a network expands the range of complementary products available to the users of the network). The more people who adopt the same standard system, the more services, and applications the user can access, and so the greater the value of that system to each individual user. On the supply side the firm with the largest network tend to achieve increasing returns to scale because the cost of developing and maintaining the network can be spread over a large and increasing growth of the system or product.

In OI environment network externalities or network effects has a profound impact. The dominant design which is the source of network effects tend to favor an open innovation ecosystem to increase the direct and indirect effects. The more users (organizations or individuals) interact with each other, the more ideas and knowledge creation to improve the system and consequently the more the network will increase in value. The increase in the size of network will tend to create an environment of creation of new ideas and knowledge that benefits the creation of more complementary products.

References

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Castilla,EJ., Hwang, H., Granovetter, E. & Granovetter, M. (2000). Social networks in Silicon Valley.
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Chesbrough, H. W. (2011). “The Era of Open Innovation”. Sloan Management Review(Winter), 35-41.
Chesbrough, H.W. (2003). Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Chesbrough, H.W. (2006). Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Chesbrough, H.W. (2007a). “Why companies should have open business models”. Sloan Management Review, 48, 2, 22–28.

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Fisher, Franklin M. and Rubinfeld, Daniel L., United States V. Microsoft: An Economic

Analysis. Available at

SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=247520 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.247520

Author: Mokhtar Amami

The web technology holds a great potential in supply chain management. Strategic advantage can be accomplished through the integration of the web-based processes in the organization’s core supply chain. It will not only reduce costs, but it will also create value along the supply chain for all networked partners. By allowing all partners (inside and outside organizational boundaries) to access the same information online, the web supply chain optimizes the demand chain, improves collaboration, and ensures synchronization across customers, suppliers and alliance partners. However, these great potentialities carry four major challenges to researchers and managers. In this limited space we try first to characterize the web-based supply chain (by contrasting it to the traditional supply chain) and outline these challenges and highlight research opportunities.

1. Web–based supply chain

The traditional supply chain is still embedded in Porter’s value chain model (Porter and Millar, 1985), which is based on value-adding members. The web-based supply chain does not look like a chain of value-adding members; on the contrary, “it looks like a web of virtual enterprises that behave as living ameba-like organisms – constantly changing shape, expanding, shrinking, multiplying, dividing, shifting, and mutating” (Andrews & Hahn, 1998).

Two forces of equal importance are reshaping this emerging supply chain: (a) perpetual changes in the roles of supply chain members, which subsequently and almost inevitably result in power shifts within the traditional supply chains; and (b) customer/consumer preference for personal customization and quick gratification, encouraging the web-based supply chain members to surround their joint customer(s) in new and exciting ways. Combined, these forces are helping to transform traditional value chains into web-value chains. This transformation is gradual but is accelerating in speed and fuelled by advances in web technology. Within a web value chain, each virtual enterprise looks like a mini-web of its own, encompassing all of its businesses (including joint ventures and subsidiaries) and partners – thousands of strategic, tactical, and virtual partners and suppliers around the world, spread over many tiers.

The new web-based supply chain will be more complex. The complexity stems from the new dynamic that “deverticalizes” the old supply chain, the multiplicity of SKUs, and the lack of standard metrics. The traditional supply chains are a collection of heterogeneous sets of agents (each) acting on the basis (typically) of incomplete information. The driving motivation is usually local (e.g., maximizing local profit or local efficacy). Efficacy and value creation along the chain are not the major focus. The movement of information and material is slow because of problems associated with data formatting and integration, applications compatibility, lack of metrics and other managerial and organizational barriers. However, the new environment is imposing new competitive dimensions: responsiveness and flexibility. The ubiquity of the organizations and consumers. Content and interaction, two dimensions of traditional supply chain channels, are antiquated and will be replaced by channels that build and maintain relationships based on awareness, accessibility, and responsiveness. The vertical-tunneled supply chain model will be abandoned and substituted by a web-based supply chain characterized by dynamic structure, constant adaptive agents, nonlinearities and feedback. Table 1 contrasts and summarizes the shift from traditional supply chain to web-based supply chain (WBSC).

WBSC is complex and dynamic. It is characterized by incessant change of transactions, relationships, and infrastructures. It tends to support a great number of Stock Keeping Units (SKU) (that may prevent demand optimization), and order driven lot-sizing to capacity availability booking and involves multiple enterprises. Furthermore, the emergence of the WBSC is a natural response to the new demanding customer (Blackwell et al., 2001), the new dynamic environment and heightening competition. The WBSC must be designed to support the fulfillment of customer orders for customized products and services faster and more efficiently than competitors. Consequently, it is critical to focus researchers and managers alike on the challenges and opportunities of this emerging WBSC.

2. Challenges and research opportunities of the web-based supply chain

The literature on the challenges and research opportunities of the new emerging of web-based supply chain is still relatively modest. Our contention is that the management of the web-based supply chain requires four imperatives. The first imperative is to develop new and better models that allow modeling the new dynamic environment. The second imperative is to develop web- based infrastructures to develop and enhance understanding and trust. The third imperative is to develop better metrics that allow supply chain visibility and foster eCommerce expansion. The fourth imperative is to develop and use software agent technology to help synchronize operation, share information, and ensure dynamic configuration.

2.1 Modeling the dynamic competitive environment among web-based supply chains.

Traditional research in the field of the supply chain focuses on optimization of vertical networks. This traditional research studies the cooperation and coordination among partners along the supply chain, without considering horizontal relationships with competitors. Each core player can build his own vertical supply chain and draw a kind of boundary that may somewhat shield his up-stream and down-stream networks from environmental turbulences. The strategic competition is conducted as supply chain against supply chain (Toyota supply chain versus Ford supply chain, Dell supply chain versus HP supply chain, etc.). The development of Internet technology and the emergence of the web-based supply chain have changed this established paradigm. As a result of decreasing coordination costs and other factors such as an increasingly demanding customer, compressed cycle times and faster rates of innovation, each core player and his partners along the supply chain (vertical supply chain) become involved in horizontal relationship with other competitors in different supply chains and compete for resources and markets. The new emerging paradigm considers that partners in a vertical supply chain are not shielded individually and collectively from strategic decisions of other core players and their partners in different supply chains. The study of this new interaction extends supply chain management research into new directions and may yield promising insights to managers. The main objective of these new research opportunities is to understand the dynamic nature of web- based supply chains. Studying the dynamics of this new environment will allow the derivation of partial equilibrium and disequilibrium conditions of new web-based supply chain players (Dafermos, 1980; Dupuis & Nagumey, 1993; Geoffrion & Power, 1995; Nagumey, 1999).

2.2 Web-based supply chain and trust

The sources of supply chain risks and uncertainties are multiple. These sources may arise from over-reactions to external or internal events, unnecessary interventions, lack of visibility, distorted information throughout a supply chain, and mistrust. The financial consequences of these risks and uncertainties can be enormous (e.g., Inventory costs due to obsolescence, markdowns and stock-outs, etc.). As stressed earlier, a web supply chain must be responsive to changing market trends, customer preferences and dynamic network supply chains. Mutual trust may be viewed as one of the primary factors that will reduce risks and uncertainties, and lead to web supply chain efficiency. The trust is based on the “willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on expectations of trustworthiness” (Mayer et al., 1995). In the supply chain field this trust takes the form of having confidence in aspects such as order cycle time, order status, demand forecasts, suppliers’ capability to deliver, manufacturing capacity, quality of the products and services delivered.

To improve web supply chain performance, dyad or collective trust must be established and developed. Mutual trust can minimize inventory (as a buffer against risks and uncertainties), reduce lead-time and the impact of bullwhip effect (Lee et al., 1997), and increase visibility, which in turn will enhance further trust. For example, a supply chain partner that has detailed information and knowledge of the real picture (about finished goods inventory, material inventory, work-in-process, actual demands and forecasts, production plans, capacity, yields, and order status) in each part of the web chain can make better decisions, and consequently, improve the performance of the web supply chain. Thus, building and developing mutual understanding and trust will yield better outcomes.

There is a real need for developing a web-based supply chain framework for building, developing and enhancing trust. How do we use the web for building, developing, and enhancing trust in order to extend the web supply chain and eCommerce? Little theory-guided research has been conducted in developing web-based computer systems to enhance trust and shared understanding among businesses and between businesses and customers who are willing to be part of the web-based supply chain. A promising research opportunity involves the building of a theoretical framework for enhancing trust and shared kind of understanding. It also involves the design and the development of a web-based interactive information system for enhancing trust, which aims to support the generation of shared understanding and trust.

2.3 Metrics for controlling the web supply chain performance.

Agility and responsiveness are two key requirements to meet demanding consumer. The web- based supply chain needs metrics and control mechanisms for monitoring performance. In the traditional supply chain where competition is supply chain against supply chain, the core player (pivot) plays a major role in coordinating activities along the supply chain, hence controlling and monitoring performance. Moreover, the actual fragmentation of the supply chain software market is acting as barrier for integration and for virtual partnerships.

Developing and using web-based supply chain (WBSC), characterized by pervasive technologies, requires an extended paradigm. This new extended paradigm must go beyond linear chains to encompass mechanisms for real-time consumption monitoring, mechanisms for virtual manufacturing coordination, and metrics for visibility, responsiveness, and velocity. It must also encompass infrastructures, approaches and models for supporting virtual partnerships and integration.

Web-based supply chain needs to perform on three key dimensions: a) service, b) assets, and c) speed. Service dimension encompasses the capability to anticipate, capture and fulfill customer demand with customized products and services that meet the required lead-time. Asset’s dimension consists of all assets that have actual and future value, particularly inventory. Speed dimension encompasses metrics that track visibility, responsiveness, and velocity.

Table 3 shows a few metrics for the WBSC that embody supply chain metrics already developed or suggested in the literature.

Organizations that intend to take advantage of the WBSC to meet end-customer requirements must develop supply chain performance measures that are designed to support and monitor activities across organizational boundaries and chains. Moreover, the design and development of these metrics will enhance and support eCommerce expansion.

Metrics cannot be considered in a vacuum. They should fit the value proposition of the web- based supply chain, in other terms they must be aligned with the intent and objectives of their business strategies. It is imperative that business strategy and the supply chain strategy must be aligned to ensure efficient execution. This area of research is a fertile ground for developing new metrics for measuring the emerging web supply chain performance.

2.4 The use of software agent technology to support web supply chain management.

Anderson and Lee (1999) pointed out that supply chain boundaries are no longer confined to the traditional boundaries of an organization. The emerging web supply chain, with its inherent focus on web-enabled interaction and collaboration among supply chain partners, will be a major driver of a sustainable competitive advantage. Although systems such as EDI technology, ERP and CRM play a major role in coordinating supply chain entities, software agents could be more effective in coordinating these entities, particularly in a dynamic environment. The research challenge of software agents consists of analyzing and understanding the precise role of this technology and identifying the implementation problems and risks associated with it.

The development of web technology fostered electronic commerce is creating huge potentials for consumers and businesses to enhance interaction in new markets (electronic marketplaces). The use of the web allows search cost reduction, product selection and ordering, online delivery of digital products and services, and mass customization. It also allows information sharing, collaboration, and planning among supply chain partners. However, the use of the web remains a labor intensive and time-consuming business. A higher level of coordination among web supply chain partners requires a new system that supports today’s dynamic environment. Software agents therefore offer multiple opportunities to support the evolution of web supply chains.

Characterization of Software agents: Software agents are entities that can operate autonomously on behalf of the user. In this perspective, the technology is expected to handle many automated supply chain processes and perform many tasks on behalf of their users. They can interact with other agents through a communication network without the intervention of the owner. They also can perform tasks asynchronously and adapt dynamically. Three main characteristics are often cited as a rationale for adopting software agents: a) data, control, expertise, or resources are inherently distributed; b) the system is naturally regarded as society of autonomous cooperating sub systems; and c) the system contains legacy components, which must be made to interact with other, possibly new sub systems.

The emerging web supply chain fits these three main characteristics. A web supply chain is a web of virtual enterprises that have their own resources, capabilities, tasks, objectives, and strategies. They engage in a dynamic cooperation to fulfill common goals and their own interests. Systems developed to coordinate among virtual enterprises are still in their infancy. Software agent technology can be used to support collaboration among partners in the new emerging supply chain management.

Using software agent technology to support collaboration among web supply chain partners: Collaboration is a critical success factor for achieving sustainable competitiveness. A web supply chain involves a great number of partners who are “constantly changing shape, expanding, shrinking, multiplying, dividing, shifting, and mutating” (Andrews & Hahn, 1998). It requires that partners synchronize their actions to increase total supply chain value. To avoid distortion and conflicts among these partners, software agents may be used to support dynamic collaboration. Three main areas of collaboration may be supported by software agent technology: a) information sharing; b) virtual synchronized operation; and c) dynamic configuration.

Information sharing consists of codified information sharing and knowledge sharing. The former, which is transactional by nature, can be exchanged using EDI technology. The latter requires a higher level of support that can be performed by software agents. For example, searching, cross boundary communication and access control requires respectively searching agents, interface agents, and authorization agents.

Virtual synchronized operation among virtual enterprises goes beyond short or long-term contracts or agreements. It tends to reduce uncertainties through information gathering and delivering warning information to the affected location for appropriate action. Software agents can play a major role in gathering and delivering this kind of information. For example, to synchronize the production schedule, a software agent can engage in negotiation with other agents to resolve conflict and to make appropriate adjustment through real time scheduling.

Dynamic configuration aims at responding to customer needs and effective use of resources. The main outcome of the dynamic configuration process consists of determining the entities in the supply chain that can design specific processes and performing the required activities that can deliver product to consumer at the optimum cost (Anderson & Lee, 1999). Software search agents can be used to search potential partners through electronic markets. Software matchmaker agents can be used to match buyers with suppliers based on mutual interests and capabilities. Software auction agents and software negotiation agents can also be used to structure the process of delivering product to consumer better than competitors.

Software agent technology can provide automated and customized services to customers. Through information sharing, synchronized operation and dynamic configuration, agent technology can support the emerging web supply chain. It is imperative that supply chain researchers devote more attention to this emerging field.

Conclusion

In this blog, we argued that dynamic structure, constant adaptive agents, nonlinearities, and feedback characterize the emerging web-based supply chain. We have identified and briefly reviewed four main research opportunities and challenges related to the emerging web supply chain: a) modeling the dynamic competitive environment among web supply chains; b) web- based supply chain and trust; c) metrics for controlling the web supply chain performance; and d) the use of software agent technology to support collaboration.

In the research area of modeling the dynamic competitive environment among web supply chains, we suggest that deriving partial equilibrium and disequilibrium conditions of new web- based supply chain players will help to understand the dynamic nature of web-based supply chains. In the research domain of web-based supply chain and trust, we also suggest that enhanced trust and shared understanding may be generated by designing and developing a web based interactive information system for enhancing trust. In the research domain of metrics for controlling the web supply chain performance, we argue that metrics should fit the value proposition of the web-based supply chain, in other terms they must be aligned with the intent and objectives of the underlying business strategies. Consequently, it is imperative that business strategy and the supply chain strategy must be aligned to ensure efficient execution. Finally, we suggest that software agent technology should be used to support the collaboration required among web supply chain entities. Information sharing, synchronized operation, and dynamic configuration are three areas where agent technology may be used to deliver products to consumers cost effectively.

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(Extrait de l’article : Amami & Rowe (2000). Les Opportunités de recherche en commerce électronique sur Internet. Congrès AIM, Montpellier. Novembre 2000.)

La lenteur des grandes entreprises à se lancer dans une stratégie Internet reflète une certaine sagesse. Au-delà d’un effet de communication et d’annonce destiné à réguler le cours des marchés boursiers, les grandes entreprises se sont vites rendu compte qu’une stratégie Internet n’était viable vis-à-vis du client que si l’organisation interne était capable de suivre l’offre. L’enjeu de la coordination interne et de la capacité à transformer l’organisation pour maintenir ou développer une relation de service de qualité avec le client et le fidéliser est donc considérable. Théoriquement la baisse des coûts d’information entraîne une baisse de coûts de coordination c’est à dire une baisse de coûts de communication et de contrôle. Malone (1997) a fait l’observation suivante : lorsque les coûts de coordination sont élevés, les décisions se prennent localement et inversement lorsque les coûts de coordination baissent, la tendance est à la centralisation. Lorsque les coûts baissent encore plus, il y a tendance à une prise de décision à la fois décentralisée et connectée.

Avec le commerce électronique sur Internet la baisse du coût des télécommunications doit donc avoir des effets sur la participation au processus décisionnel et sur la qualité des décisions des entreprises. Plus généralement le commerce électronique sur Internet se traduit par des effets sur la conception et la transformation de l’organisation interne, mais aussi sur la taille des unités et les systèmes d’incitation dans le partage de la connaissance et de l’information créée. Finalement c’est la question de la communauté de référence et d’une alternative à la quête de la culture d’entreprise qui émerge avec les communautés (professionnelles) virtuelles.

Impact du CE sur la participation et la qualité des décisions

La baisse des coûts de communication de l’information et la diffusion des mobiles fait augmenter le nombre de participants à la prise de décision et rend moins constant le niveau hiérarchique qui prend effectivement la décision. Un domaine de recherche prometteur consiste à vérifier si le type de support de communication influence le nombre de participants et la qualité de la décision. Il s’agit d’étudier comment le nombre de participants peut varier selon le type de décision et d’autres facteurs tels que la confiance et la motivation. En particulier, il faut étudier l’impact d’Internet sur les coûts de coordination dans des organisations ayant des unités dispersées, interdépendantes et spécialisées. En outre il faut étudier comment une structure de prise de décision connectée et décentralisée utilisant le support Internet favorise la diffusion et le partage de l’information et des connaissances.

Impact de la technologie Internet sur la taille des unités des décisions

La taille des unités de décision implique le sens suivant : des unités où le contrôle des actifs est concentré entre les mains de ceux qui possèdent l’information et les connaissances, des unités qui possèdent une autonomie de gestion mais qui sont contrôlées par des grandes unités où les actifs sont entre les mains du public, et des unités qui possèdent une autonomie de gestion et où les actifs sont contrôlés par un partenariat entrepreneur/entrepreneur-capital-risques (capital venture). La technologie Internet et le développement du commerce électronique semble favoriser les tailles réduites (Brynjolfsson et al., 1994) L’émergence des nouvelles entreprises Internet donne à penser que la tendance des tailles est vers la baisse. Il existe actuellement Une entreprise des entreprises relativement de taille réduite (e.g., Schwab) mais dont la capitalisation boursière peut dépasser plusieurs celles des entreprises qui sont établies depuis longtemps. Partant de l’hypothèse que la technologie Internet et le commerce électronique ‘libèrent’ le consommateur, les nouvelles entreprises développent les affaires non en bâtissant des murs autour du consommateur mais plutôt en offrant le meilleur service. Or, la prestation d’un bon service nécessite une interaction avec le consommateur et des agents qui comprennent et répondent à ses besoins. Il est difficile d’établir un contrat qui compensera les efforts et le temps d’un agent pour livrer un excellent service. L’usage du commerce électronique (CE) combiné aux structures de taille petite (animées par des agents motivés et de confiance) représente un atout pour être concurrentiel et survivre. Étant donné la difficulté de déterminer les contributions de ces agents, une unité de grande taille ne peut pas livrer les prestations attendues. Enfin, la réduction des tailles

des unités peut être rendue possible dû à l’existence des experts électroniques. L’exemple le plus souvent cité est celui des agents intelligents qui sont capables d’éliminer les courtiers traditionnels et donc permettre à des unités de taille modeste de donner un excellent service. De ce qui précède, il semble que l’impact de la technologie Internet et du CE sur la taille des unités de décision représente un domaine de recherche intéressant.

Impact de la technologie Internet et du CE sur l’appropriation des actifs

Peut-on séparer contrôle et appropriation? Voilà une vieille question qui refait surface et devient de plus en plus pertinente à fur et à mesure que la technologie de l’information se développe. La théorie du principal-agent soutient que lorsqu’une organisation (principal) embauche un employé (agent), il est recommandé d’offrir des récompenses sous forme de bénéfices marginaux afin de le motiver à produire un rendement optimum. Étant donné que l’entreprise (principal) est incapable de mesurer l’effort de l’employé (agent), il est conseiller de lier une partie des récompenses à la performance (exemple : commission sur les ventes totales). Le développement de la technologie de l’information a rendu la tâche encore plus ardue. En effet, dans une économie numérisée les connaissances sont devenues la ressource fondamentale alors que les facteurs traditionnels comme le capital et le travail sont devenues des ressources secondaires. La ressource principale la plus productive sont des programmes et des compétences qui sont partiellement gelés dans le design des machines et largement stockés dans les cerveaux des humains. Dans une économie informationnelle, les connaissances jouent un rôle fondamental. Dans ces conditions comment évaluer les récompenses et mesurer les performances. Tant qu’une action menée par l’agent au profit du principal est mesurable, elle peut être contractée. Or les actions des agents dans une économie informationnelle sont difficiles à mesurer et donc difficiles à contracter. La théorie des contrats incomplets (Hart & Moore, 1990) peut aider à résoudre le dilemme de contrat principal-agent. Hart et Moore suggèrent que lorsqu’un agent devient indispensable au développement d’un actif, le principal doit le posséder. On peut extrapoler en soutenant que l’agent le plus informé peut exploiter ses connaissances seulement quand il prend le contrôle total de l’unité de production. Les réseaux électroniques et en particulier Internet permettent, de façon non discriminatoire, à l’agent et au principal d’accéder à l’information. Cependant, un agent peut devenir plus informé par sa capacité supérieure aux autres (agent ou principal) à extraire une connaissance de la masse d’information. Cette capacité d’attention, de détection et de traitement est fondamentale pour déterminer la contribution d’un agent dans une économie informationnelle. Par conséquent un domaine de recherche prometteur serait d’explorer la théorie des contrats incomplets (Hart & Moore, 1990) et donc la question de l’appropriation des actifs et de contrôle dans une économie numérisée.

Design organisationnel et transformation des organisations

L’avènement de la technologie Internet et du CE a induit les managers à penser que l’organisation est une arme pour gagner un avantage concurrentiel et non un mal nécessaire. Il est admis aujourd’hui que les organisations gagnantes sont celles qui font participer leurs employés au processus de création, de prise de décision, et aux profits réalisés. Pour faciliter le travail et les innovations de ces employés, ils doivent être organisés. Par conséquent, le design organisationnel doit être considéré comme une variable stratégique importante difficile à imiter. La propagation de l’usage du CE dans la gestion des affaires va favoriser un design basé sur la communication

latérale, la gestion par projets et un système de récompenses équilibrant les contributions et les rétributions. Une opportunité de recherche consiste à étudier l’impact de la technologie Internet et du CE sur le design des organisations et leur performance. Les études d’impact peuvent donc, évaluer les effets de la technologie Internet: 1) sur la coordination latérale, la transformation des processus de décisions, le système de récompenses et le style de leadership; et 2) sur la performance telle que mesurée par des indicateurs financiers, opérationnels et autres.

La technologie Internet transforme les marchés, les organisations et les relations intra et inter-organisationnelles. Les technologies émergentes (e.g., Intranet, Extranet, RFID, ERP) vont transformer les fonctions de l’entreprise telles que le développement du produit, approvisionnement, contrôle des inventaires, marketing et ventes. Ces transformations auront un impact sur les relations entre les individus, les groupes et les unités d’affaires et par conséquent sur le leadership et la culture de l’entreprise. Les organisations qui adoptent ces technologies tendent à réduire leurs hiérarchies et éliminer les murs entre les fonctions managériales. Par conséquent les entreprises tendent à adopter une structure plus horizontale où les employés et les équipes jouissent d’une plus grande autonomie et d’une marge plus grande dans la prise de décision.

L’impact de ces technologies sur les organisations est immense. Elles tendent à modifier les stratégies, les structures et la performance des organisations. Le commerce électronique sur Internet va forcer les organisations à reconsidérer les mécanismes de coordination (communication et contrôle) c’est à dire leur design organisationnel. La littérature est volumineuse mettant de l’avant de nouveaux concepts et paradigmes relatifs à l’organisation du travail dans les nouvelles entreprises : le paradigme de la remise à plat ou re-engineering, le concept de l’entreprise en réseau et la notion des entreprises inter-réseaux.

En empruntant des notions à la théorie de la complexité, certains théoriciens ont soutenu que les entreprises doivent « émuler » les systèmes biologiques comme celui du réseau des neurones et éliminer les hiérarchies rigides. Les employés peuvent ainsi jouir d’une certaine autonomie qui à la fois augmente leur productivité mais surtout le sens des responsabilités. Le défi majeur est de restructurer les processus et les relations de manière à faciliter le flux d’information vers ceux qui y ont besoin. Les questions de recherche suivantes semblent pertinentes pour les chercheurs qui s’intéressent à étudier les impacts de la technologie Internet sur la transformation des organisations. Quelles formes ces organisations prennent-elles ? Quelles sont les frontières de ces nouvelles organisations ? Comment gérer à la fois l’indépendance et l’interdépendance ? Comment identifier et développer les compétences uniques ? Comment à la fois gérer les innovations et respecter les propriétés intellectuelles ?

Internet et communauté virtuelle

La technologie Internet a attiré une nouvelle classe d’entrepreneurs et d’entreprises qui ont transformé le commerce. En effet, des nouveaux entrepreneurs avec une imagination qui sait prévoir les besoins des consommateurs de demain ont pu bâtir et développé des nouvelles entreprises avec un nouveau modèle d’affaires et une nouvelle approche de marketing. Résultat, des nouvelles entreprises comme eBay, Amazon.com, etc., ont émergé et pourrait transformer le monde du commerce qu’on a toujours connu. L’environnement Internet peut augmenter le pouvoir de négociation des consommateurs qui sont capables d’identifier les produits répondant à des besoins spécifiques, comparer la qualité, le prix et d’autres caractéristiques du produit. L’émergence de la «communauté virtuelle» peut augmenter le pouvoir du consommateur. Une

communauté virtuelle est un groupe d’individus éparpillés à travers le globe ayant des intérêts et des besoins similaires et qui sont liés par le réseau Internet. Pourquoi l’émergence de la communauté virtuelle est-elle un phénomène important ? L’individu est attiré par l’opportunité d’appartenir à un groupe d’individus avec qui il veut partager sa vision du monde, son modèle de consommation, ses désirs et ses craintes. Ces nouveaux groupes représentent à la fois un nouveau phénomène social et un nouveau pouvoir économique. Parce que les membres de la communauté sont informés sur la qualité, le prix et d’autres caractéristiques, les nouvelles communautés virtuelles sont capables d’influencer les décisions des entreprises en matière des offres possibles et des prix (Cucchi, 1999).

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