Literature Review on Digital Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Literature Review on Digital Economy - Essay Example Experts report that during the time of introduction of this tool to the world, policymakers explored the possibility of IT making a large impact, but in vain. This failure of IT became reinforced again in the 1990s, when IT began to revolutionize the world economy but again plunged into disaster with the â€Å"dot-bomb† implosion, the 2001 recession, and the NASDAQ collapse. These disasters have led to experts and policymakers forfeit confidence in the concept of IT and digital revolution. Nicholas Carr (2003, pp. 10) evaluated this technological tool by claiming that the improvements that it had the potential to bring about had either already been introduced, or were in the process. This statement represented the prevailing view of IT at that time, as people had started considering it insignificant for individual firms as well as the overall economy. This conclusion was a premature and incorrect one; as the technology went on to completely revolutionize the economy much more than initial prediction. This literature review aims to analyze the reasons behind this faltering confidence during these times. As one can observe in the world today, digital development in the economy is at a level that far exceeds earlier forecasts. However, contrary to predictions, this revolution has not come about due to a rise in e-commerce and other internet-related phenomenon. Instead, the main factor behind this revolution was the way people have managed to adopt IT in almost every aspect of life, inside as well as outside work. This digitally enabled economy was then able to achieve immense growth and prosperity in every aspect: education, business, trade, as well as monetary policy. One large factor behind this accelerated growth was the investment that firms made in software, hardware, as well as services related to IT and communications. It boosted productivity up to five times more than other capital such as buildings and plants could. The large role of IT in this major economic development i s apparent in the fact that sixty-seven percent of total factor productivity growth during the period of 1995 and 2002 was due to IT implementation in the US (Jorgenson et al, 2005). It also boosted the labor productivity in developing nations, and it is considered the main driver behind innovation and productivity growth in the recent years. Despite the major contributions of IT to the economy, not much research has gone into exploring the depths of this contribution. Through this literature review, we attempt to carry out this exploration. More specifically, we will be looking into the contributions of IT in ‘improving the quality of goods and services. A common misconception is that the scope of digital economy is limited to e-commerce. Its actual scope includes all applications of technology in the economy, including that of hardware, applications, and telecommunications. Each of these tools of IT has important applications in areas such as intercompany transactions, data management, internal processes in organizations and vendor-customer relations. These benefits apply to firms regardless of whether they belong to the public sector or the private sector. The revolution to the economy that information technology has brought about is comparable to the revolution that hardened steel brought to the industries a century ago, when it taught them how to construct steel tools that helped boost productivity immensely. Furthermore, it is difficult to grasp the true pervasiveness of IT in the world. It not only exists in technological