Technology and Innovation for Networks

The aim of this paper is to retrace the main stages and impact of the digital era, to understand the real benefits of the introduction of new technologies and to ascertain how the new technologies have influenced the organizational and cultural transformations in terms of competitive advantage and collaboration. In this context, to understand better the actor-to-actor connections, interactions and relationship networks, this study relies on a systems thinking perspective by defining the openness degree of the systems and the governance of the communication flows that derive as a consequence. The methodological approach adopted, albeit of a heuristic type, refers to the positive method in that, starting from the analysis of the historical descriptive literature and non-fiction, it intends to formulate very precise future scenarios. The systemic interpretation, in the light of the constructivist paradigm, allows us to subvert the traditional explanatory report ‘object–information–observer’, placing the observation function at the base of the explanatory chain: ‘observer–information–object’. The prospect’s change is relevant because every phenomenon in the eyes of the observer is a construct. The present work sheds light on the birth of a new production mode based on collaborative and decentralized models, referred to as ‘weapons of mass collaboration’. Based on these changes, enterprise 2.0 develops. The user–consumer takes on a new look and acquires an active, fluid and growing power. This reveals that innovation can come, and indeed does come, from below, from the same skilled users who increasingly thin the line between professionals and amateurs. Regarding some practical implications, this study shows organizations of any type the benefits of the new economic paradigm, leveraging the partnership to cut costs and accelerating the pace of innovation. Another influential implication to macro- and micro-organizational structures is the transition from an economy of scale to one of flexibility and breadth. Finally, it is noted that the operating economic unit is no longer the company but the economic project around the network between businesses and segments of companies and their subcontractors.