Information & Communication Technologies Impact on

Globalization

There are many ways in which Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have impacted
globalization and it is commonly believed that the information revolution made globalisation
possible. This article looks at how ICTs, such as the internet and satellite phones, have has a major
impact on banking, production and the perpetuation of capitalism and globalization over
communism.
ICTs and Globalization of Banks
One way ICTs have facilitated and impacted globalization is by making the world economy
electronic, through information systems and technology rather than organisational hierarchies. The
development of ICTs, and specifically the internet, has facilitated the growing connection of large
banks and corporations across the world through a series of information communication networks
which are online, in terms of management, selling and production.
Because of the combination of information technology and global networks there is now a new world
information economy, within which investment, production, management, markets, labour,
information and technology are organized across national boundaries. Examples of this can be seen
in banking as global information networks have made it possible for banks, corporations, as well as
millions of individual investors, to transfer vast amounts from one side of the world to another at the
click of a mouse.
ICTs and Globalalization of Production
ICTs and global networks have not only impacted the economy in terms of banking but also

productivity and this is crucial to the information economy as productivity is one of the driving
forces of economic progress. In this global economy productivity has been affected in two ways by
ICTs:
Firstly, it is now possible for transnational corporation's to locate their headquarters in say New
York City, design facilities in Boston, manufacture in India and then assemble products in the UK. It
is possible for a corporation to locate itself around the world like this due to the development of ICTs
in terms of the internet and satellite phones that allow world wide communication.Secondly, the
ways in which companies produce, and what they produce, is changing due to ICTs. How they
produce is changing because of the development of computerised robotic production lines. This
means that productivity is now powered by information technology, and can be seen as faster, more
efficient and higher quality than heavy labour production lines.What's more, the products being
produced throughout the world are now orientated around ICTs, with growing production of
personal computers, mobile phones, and digital cameras. For example the Office for National
Statistics noted that in 1998
http://filippositaliano.com/blog/2015/09/09/what-information-technology-strategy-entails/ 34% of UK
households had a computer and this rose by a massive 20% in just four years up to 2002 and has
continued to rise further.ICTs and the Fall of Communism
The advancements of ICTs then have made the economy and production global and electronic.
Because of this ICTs can be seen as creating not only globalization but global capitalism and are also
linked to the collapse of the USSR. This is because during the 1970s and 1980s the Soviet Union had
its emphasis upon state-run enterprise and heavy industry. This meant that, although they produced
42% more oil and 80% more steel than America, they did not revolutionise in terms of ICTs.
Because of this they could not compete in the global electronic economy. Not only could they not
compete in the new electronic economy but the integration of ICTs in so many products such as
radios, phones and computers, made it difficult for the Soviet system to assimilate and to adapt them
for its own purposes.
This meant that citizens within the Soviet Union gained access to these new technologies in terms of
western capitalist radio and T.V. etc. which created revolutions in 1989 when one country within the
Soviet Union witnessed revolution in another country on T.V. and followed suit. ICTs were a major
factor in the downfall of Russian communism and therefore there is a central place of the IT
revolution in capitalist globalization.
So ICTs have impacted globalization, economically and materially, by creating global electronic
networks that made global communication possible, which in turn made global business and global
production possible. They have also impacted globalization by facilitating the downfall of Russian
communism and promoting global capitalism. It is clear that without the development of ICTs, and
specifically communication networks such as the internet and satellite phones, the new global
electronic economy could not exist, and globalisation would not be as it is today.
Sources:
Castells, M. (2000) End of Millennium. 2nd ed. The Information Age: Economy, society and Culture
Volume 3. Oxford, Blackwell.
Giddens, A. (2000) Runaway World: How Globalisation is Reshaping our Lives. London, Profile
Books.

Kobrin, S. (1998) The MAI and the clash of globalisation. Foreign Policy. Fall, pp.97-109.
Sklair, L. (2002) Globalization: Capitalism & its Alternatives. 3rd ed. Oxford, Oxford University
Press.
Webster, F. (2003) Theories of the Information Society. 2nd ed. London, Routledge.
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