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As the most active field in China's economic development, the digital economy is crucial to the high-quality development of enterprises. Taking Chinese-listed agricultural enterprises as research samples, this paper discusses the effect of the digital economy on promoting the high-quality development of agricultural enterprises and the mechanism behind it from the perspective of total factor productivity of enterprises. The study found that the digital economy significantly promoted the improvement of total factor productivity of agricultural enterprises and enabled the high-quality development of agricultural enterprises, and this conclusion remained valid after controlling for endogeneity and conducting robustness tests. In terms of action mechanisms, the digital economy is conducive to promoting green innovation and promoting the high-quality development of agricultural enterprises; However, entrepreneurial activity has a masking effect. Further analysis shows that the digital economy plays a more significant role in promoting non-resource-intensive agricultural enterprises located in northern China. At the same time, the higher the industrial structure and financial development level of the region, the more positive impact the digital economy can play. This study verifies the impact mechanism of the digital economy on the high-quality development of agricultural enterprises and provides enlightenment for China's the digital economy policy-making and enterprises' the high-quality development strategy decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency is crucial for achieving a balance between economic growth and sustainable development. As carbon-neutral targets continue to gain momentum, green investments are becoming increasingly important. Therefore, it is critical to investigate the relationship between green investment and energy efficiency. This paper aims to fill a gap in the macroeconomic literature by using a generalized method of moments (GMM) technique based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2019. The econometric results indicate that green investment is positively associated with energy efficiency. Additionally, green investment indirectly promotes energy efficiency by fostering technology innovation and research and development (R&D) intensity. The results also suggest that more advanced digital development is linked to improvements in energy efficiency. Furthermore, regions characterized by higher levels of digital economy exhibit a more pronounced contribution of green investment to energy efficiency. Based on these findings, this paper provides valuable insights for Chinese policymakers on green investment and low-carbon development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy is integral in driving economic growth, particularly of high-quality standards. Against the backdrop of the "Double Carbon" project, exploring the impact of the digital economy on green agricultural development bears tremendous practical significance. Thus, this study aims to investigate how the digital economy affects agricultural green total factor productivity (GTFP). The entropy-TOPSIS method and SBM-GML index are used to measure core variables quantitatively. In addition, two-way fixed effects panel data models, Tobit, and intermediary effect models are implemented. Three research findings emerge. First, China's agricultural GTFP level generally experiences an upward trend, and the development of the digital economy has a significant positive effect on increasing agricultural GTFP. Second, the digital economy mainly promotes agricultural technology innovation that boosts agricultural GTFP. Third, Western China experiences a more significant positive effect of the digital economy on agricultural GTFP than Central and Eastern China. Finally, based on the findings, this paper proposes relevant policy recommendations to promote green and sustainable agriculture development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy is developing rapidly worldwide, which is of great strategic significance in leading and driving the process of high-quality and high-efficiency development of the economy. It has gradually become a new engine to promote China's economic growth. Therefore, it is vital to establish a digital economy indicator system. In this context, according to the connotation of digital economy, comprehensively consider the four dimensions of digital foundation, digital application, digital innovation and digital benefit, and build a full-scale digital economy indicator system. However, some previous literature proposed operating the K-means clustering algorithm in optimizing the index system. The algorithm, susceptible to the initial selection of cluster center, generates completely different clustering results with other random seed points and is thus unsuitable for optimizing the index system. Based on this, the advantages of GRA, SA, and K-means algorithms are combined to propose a K-means-SA algorithm that can obtain the global optimal solution. Then, by combining the K-means SA algorithm and the rough set algorithm, the constructed index system is further optimized. Ultimately, it establishes a set of all-round, multi-system and multi-dimensional digital economy index systems, which is of great reference significance for formulating relevant policies, provides scientific index support for the subsequent extension of digital economy theory, and promotes the benign growth of the worldwide economy. Plain language summary: The importance of constructing and optimizing the digital economy indicator system In today's rapid development of the digital economy, a set of scientific, feasible, and practical application values of the digital economy evaluation index system is constructed to evaluate better and promote the development of the digital economy. Based on the four dimensions of digital foundation, digital application, digital innovation, and digital benefit, this paper constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system for the development level of the digital economy. In addition, by combining the advantages of GRA, SA, and K-means algorithms, a K-means SA algorithm can obtain the global optimal solution proposed. Then, the K-mean-SA algorithm is combined with the rough set algorithm to optimize the constructed index system further. Finally, a comprehensive, multisystem, and multi-dimensional evaluation index system for the development level of the digital economy is established, which provides scientific support for the development of digital economy theory and promotes the healthy development of the digital economy. Although this paper collects indicators related to the digital economy as comprehensively as possible based on existing studies, there are still some limitations in the selection of needles due to the strong integration of the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting high-quality economic development, boosting high-level ecological environment protection, and integrating deeply digital economy and energy efficiency has become a general trend. This paper, based on 284 prefecture-level Chinese cities from 2008 to 2018, uses the entropy weight method and super-efficient SBM-DEA model to measure the digital economy and energy efficiency (decompose into energy pure technical efficiency and energy scale efficiency), respectively. After the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics, a fixed-effect model is constructed to study the impact of the digital economy on energy efficiency. The research results show that: (1) the development of the digital economy effectively promotes energy efficiency, mainly reflected in the improvement of pure technical efficiency of energy; (2) the development of both the digital economy and the energy efficiency in China has complex spatial and temporal evolutionary characteristics, and there is heterogeneity in the impact of the digital economy on energy efficiency at the temporal and spatial levels; and (3) digital economy effectively improves energy efficiency by reducing unnecessary energy consumption through the R&D innovation effect. The development of the digital economy has far-reaching significance on the optimization and upgrading of the economic system, accelerating the improvement of energy efficiency and achieving green transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy is an important driving force for China's economic transformation and upgrading, while "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" is the goal to be achieved in China. Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces (cities and districts) from 2012 to 2019, the article empirically investigates the impact of the digital economy on regional carbon emissions and its mechanism of action by using a two-way fixed-effects model and mediated-effects model. The study shows that, firstly, the digital economy has a significant carbon emission reduction effect, and the conclusion still holds after robustness testing. Secondly, the emission reduction effect of industry digitization in the digital economy dimension is the most obvious. Again, the carbon emission reduction effect of digital economy development on different regions varies, with the strongest carbon emission reduction effect on western regions and regions with high carbon emission levels. Finally, the analysis of mediating effects shows that the energy structure is an important mechanism for the digital economy to suppress regional carbon emissions. The findings of the study provide a feasible path and policy reference for the digital economy to contribute to the goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the impact of the digital economy on industrial structure upgrading, this paper constructs the dynamic spatial Durbin model, dynamic spatial intermediary model, and spatial threshold model based on the panel data of 155 prefecturelevel cities in China from 2011 to 2021. It is found that: (a) the improvement of the digital economy in the region can directly promote the upgrading of local industrial structure, but there is a significant "siphon effect," which makes the spatial spillover effect negative and significant. (b) The digital transformation of enterprises plays a mediating role in the path of digital economy-driven industrial structure upgrading, with a short-term mediating effect size of about 17.18%. (c) The digital economy has a threshold effect on the path of enterprise digital transformation for industrial structure upgrading. These findings provide suggestions for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet-based companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Tencent hold an enormous amount of consumer data that are utilized to create business value via big data analytics. Although some companies use big data to provide professional services, such as targeted advertising and product recommendations, according to the current CAS, IFRS, and U.S. GAAP accounting standards, these assets are not recognized as assets since they are generated internally. This paper starts with a discussion of how Amazon, Facebook, Tencent, and Walmart use big data to create value for their businesses and then argues why it makes sense to recognize big data as intangible assets. Possible methods of data asset evaluation and their implications for business managers are also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalization of commercial exchanges and capital movements reveal new ways of obtaining value in economic activities, and the differences in the tax burden of companies, depending on where they reside, have become threats for countries to exercise the right to tax business profits generated in its jurisdiction. This problem, together with tax competition between countries, causes a transfer of tax bases towards countries with lower tax rates and tax havens. The lack of agreement in the international community on how to find a solution to the problems has caused several countries to choose to establish special taxes for certain activities of multinational companies in their jurisdictions, resulting in inefficient taxes. This paper analyzes the agreement reached in October 2021 in the G20 and in the OECD in which measures are adopted within the BEPS project to prevent the erosion of tax bases in market jurisdictions promoted by multinational companies. After studying different aspects, we found fundamental reasons for not having an optimistic view on the effective solution to the problems above: unrealistic forecasts on the amount of the new estimated tax bases for Pillar 1 and the high administration and compliance costs. In conclusion, it is not foreseeable that the tax bases derived from the provision of digital services will suffer a territorial redistribution. We do not expect that a minimum tax rate of 15% in corporate tax will be carried out effectively or that the benefits that are transferred to tax havens will be significantly reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006, Harvard Law School Professor Yochai Benkler proposed a wager to technology and society author Nicholas Carr. Benkler argued that by 2011 the most influential websites would be based on content produced by people engaged in peer production. Carr maintained that the lure of money and the corporate hierarchies will be more effective. So, after 15 years, who has really won the bet? Are the most influential websites peer-produced or price-incentivized? To address these questions, this paper discusses what peer production is in relation to price-incentivized production. The Carr-Benkler wager is used as a lens to examine the current social and political struggles in the digital economy, to unveil the adversary value systems underneath and the respective implications for organization. We conclude with some reflections on the controversies and ambiguities of peer production and a call for critical scholarship to engage in a deeper discussion on value and organization in the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the double pressure of economic downturn and climate deterioration, the Chinese government needs to use the "double carbon" policy to drive the green transformation of the manufacturing industry. This article takes A-share manufacturing listed companies as the research object, constructs the enterprise digital economy investment index by text analysis and expert scoring method, and represents the degree of green transformation by enterprise green total factor productivity. At the theoretical level, the impact mechanism of the digital economy empowering green transformation in the manufacturing industry is hypothesized. The relevant hypotheses were tested through econometric empirical evidence, and the econometric model significantly passed the robustness test, proving that the digital economy empowers the development of green transformation in the manufacturing industry significantly. This article reveals that the digital economy promotes the green total factor productivity of enterprises by enhancing their innovation capability, improving the efficiency of production factor flow, and increasing their emission costs, but the factor intensity and the nature of enterprise owners will have different effects on the green transformation of the manufacturing industry enabled by the digital economy. This article explores the internal mechanism of green transformation development in the digital economy-enabled manufacturing industry and provides empirical evidence for enterprises to formulate development strategies and for governments to issue guiding policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the digital economy has highlighted the assetization of data. This article argues for expanding existing research on data and datafication processes by focusing on how relationships are made and unmade through and from data. We introduce a general analytic model of "relationing" and show how relationships between users, companies, and products are created in three different moments—entanglement, dissection, and matching—first in the digital economy, then in physical stores. We show how payments with mobile phones connect the digital to the brick-and-mortar economy. Applying our model, we illustrate how a mobile phone's various data streams, money's record-keeping function, and retailers' loyalty programs produce qualitatively and quantitatively new relations between customers, retailers, banks, app providers, and payment intermediaries. We argue that "relational embedding" captures the inherent relationality between users, their data points, and other economic actors: algorithmically relating users' data profiles to other users' profiles yields personalized recommendations, ads, or rebates, continuing the relationship between retailers and customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban agglomeration (UA), as the carrier of regional economic transformation, is an important impetus for the development of the digital economy (DE) in the future. Based on the perspective of the spatial structure of UA, this paper first attempts to clarify the theoretical aspects of the influence of the spatial structure on DE, its heterogeneous characteristics, and inner impact mechanism, and then empirically test the corresponding hypotheses by utilizing the data on China’s 18 UAs from 2011 to 2019. Our findings are as follows: (1) The monocentric structure has an inverted “U-shaped” impact on DE, namely, first promotion and then inhibition effects. (2) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the inverted “U-shaped” relationship between the monocentric structure and DE is not observed in UAs lacking megacities and is insignificant during the early and middle development phases of UAs. However, this non-linear relationship becomes significant in UAs with megacities and UAs in mature and later development stages. (3) More deeply, this study uncovers that innovation serves as a mediating factor in the influence of the monocentric structure on DE. This article not only enriches the existing body of research on UAs and DE but also provides valuable theoretical insights for the development of DE within UAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extends property-owning democracy to the digital realm and introduces "data-owning democracy," a new political economic regime characterized by the wide distribution of data as capital among citizens. Drawing on republican theory and acknowledging data's unique role in the digital economy, it proposes a two-tier model that combines different modes of data ownership and corresponding rights. The first layer of "data-owning democracy" is characterized by a digital public infrastructure that enables citizens to collectively generate data and have a say in how their citizen data are used. In the second layer, individuals automatically receive machine-readable copies of their data whenever they are generated—a slightly more advanced form of the European Union's existing right to data portability (Art. 20). With its focus on empowerment, data-owning democracy is designed to be complementary to existing data protection regulations. It also illustrates how political theory more broadly, and republican theory specifically, can be instructive for specifying the normative components of a new political economy dealing with questions of empowerment and digital rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strategic role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is growing in various companies. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) adopt ICT solutions to support their processes and to improve their products and services. Because of SMEs' scarce resources and inadequate ICT competencies, they need support from ICT suppliers in the ICT adoption process. Little attention has been paid to the business models and strategies of ICT suppliers in the academic and professional literature, and SMEs find it difficult to determine the characteristics of available ICT suppliers and to choose the supplier that best responds to their needs and aims. The goal of this paper is to provide a detailed picture of the ICT sales channel and its players in the European market. A classification framework is proposed and eleven different business models are identified. The paper is based on a case study methodology that included 53 semi-standardized interviews with CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) and marketing and communications managers at leading European ICT suppliers coupled with the literature review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrasting existing scholarship in 'socialism with Chinese characteristics', this article builds on the theorisation of infrastructural capitalism as an emerging global-capitalist project entangled with both China's state-socialist ideology and the latest nationalistic revitalisation agenda, serving both political and commercial goals, yet also rendering discontent and resistance in daily business and employment practices. Through participant observation across 13 Alibaba departments or subsidiaries, semi-structured interviews with workers in Alibaba and other Chinese platform companies, and the analysis of corporate documentation and media reports, our ethnographic study highlights the 'physical and digital (phygital)' nature of infrastructure, and theorises how discursive, symbolic, and sensorial techniques are adopted to direct and sustain infrastructural capitalism in daily organisational setting through three unique mechanisms: public-private partnerships, corporate prosumption networks (CPN) and imagineered global competition. This article's key contributions are threefold: to dissect the intertwined discursive, symbolic and affective mechanisms through which the 'invisible' infrastructures of capitalism are made 'visible' and 'sensible'; unpack the variegated impacts and inherent dilemmas of infrastructural capitalism; and reimagine the possibility of individual resistance and systemic transgression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global spread of a web-based digital economy raises questions about its potential as a lifeline to people affected by severe economic and humanitarian crises. As local markets crumble and unemployment rises, online freelance work offers a seemingly accessible source of income that is independent of the constraints of local markets and national regulations. This article scrutinizes this promise against the backdrop of multiple evolving crises in Lebanon, asking to what extent a transnational digital economy can serve crisis-affected populations, including refugees, as a secure source of income and work. The research is based on interviews and surveys with Syrian refugees and host community members in Lebanon, who participated in digital skills training programmes and worked as digital freelancers for Social Impact Platforms and Enterprises. Their experience shows how the impact of Lebanon's crises undermined the feasibility of web-based digital work precisely at a time when they needed it most. Syrian refugees in Lebanon are affected by particular layers of regulatory restriction, including their exclusion from digital platforms, skills training programmes, and the financial system. As these layers of exclusion intersect with the precarity of self-employed digital jobs and a severe economic crisis, Syrians' displacement in Lebanon is reconfigured into a digital space of exile within a transnational digital economy. Viewed from this perspective, the digital economy fails to live up to its inclusive promise and fails to transcend the restrictive regulations, economic instability, and precarity that characterizes crisis-affected states and populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, "the logic of traffic" (liuliang luoji, 流量逻辑) is a buzzword widely adopted within digital platforms, the government, and the general public. A cursory description of how digital platforms operate, the logic of traffic is often equated with unscrupulous traffic-chasing behavior, and fails to capture the complex relationships and interactions within the political economy of Chinese digital media platforms. This article uses official accounts on the WeChat platform as a case study to examine the historical evolution of the logic of traffic and considers the collaborations between various stakeholders and their implications. Through fieldwork observations and in-depth interviews, we illustrate the dynamic relationships between media, platform, government, and content producers. We argue that the logic of traffic, as both a managerial consideration and cultural imperative, is driven by both market and governmental forces, even as it is expressed in the routine discursive practices of content creation. The research contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the indigenous logic of platform cultural production and provides insights into the dynamic relationship between the state and digital media industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital patronage is an emergent revenue model in which fans provide recurring financial support to a content creator, as exemplified through platforms like Twitch and Patreon. Whereas previous research has investigated creator-supporter relationships, the current study investigates creators' multi-platform practices through in-depth interviews. We build on trends in creative labor studies and communication to examine how creators perceive Patreon and integrate it into their existing workflow. This study's findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of digital patronage within the broader ecosystem of creative labor platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New digital technologies have prompted many firms, including family firms, to innovate their business models. We study the role of dynamic capabilities as mediator in the relationship between family influence and digital business model innovation (BMI), and the moderating role of environmental dynamism. Based on unique survey data from 1,444 German firms with and without family influence, we reveal that knowledge exploitation, risk management, and marketing capabilities mediate the positive relationship between family influence and digital BMI. Surprisingly, and contrary to our assumption, we find that the positive relationship between family influence and dynamic capabilities is weakened rather than strengthened by environmental dynamism. Our findings hold important implications for family business innovation and digital BMI research, offering valuable insights into the role of dynamic capabilities and environmental dynamism in the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores affective and immaterial labor on the leading live-streaming platform, Twitch.tv, which boasts over one hundred million regular viewers and two million regular broadcasters. This labor involves digitally mediated outward countenance, including being friendly to viewers, soliciting donations, building parasocial intimacy with spectators, and engaging audiences through humor. We offer an examination of streamers broadcasting as a "character," which we situate within the context of play becoming work, the labor of performance and acting, and the economic compulsions that shape cultural labor on Twitch. We draw on hundred interviews with professional and aspiring-professional game broadcasters conducted in 2016 and 2017 at gaming events across the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Poland, alongside ethnographic research. This inquiry into the dynamics of digital games and labor underscores the importance of studying live streaming as part of a wider critical investigation of contemporary digital work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses five dominant themes and important empirical findings in the recent literature on the marketing-finance interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional discourses about self-employment are unsatisfactory since there is no clear acknowledgment of its heterogeneity. Interpretations tend to refer to an average type that does not exist in practice, and there are problems of coherence, demarcations, and overlap. Examining macro-level patterns of self-employment, a number of patterns emerge. First, self-employment includes both marginal and privileged positions, within individual countries and also in international comparisons. It can put people at risk of precariousness and poverty or it can be a vehicle to bring wealth to individuals and enterprises, contributing jobs and economic growth to society. Second, people increasingly switch between wage- or salary-dependent labor and self-employment and hybrid forms of employment, as forms of micro entrepreneurship are combined with dependent labor. Third, internationally, the ratio of women in solo self-employment is higher than that of men. Fourth, remarkable differences exist at the level of solo self-employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital assets are growing in scale, scope, and importance, amplifying the necessity to maintain their confidentiality. Yet, digital confidentiality has received vastly less research attention from operations and supply chain management (OSCM) scholars than cost, quality, flexibility, delivery, and innovation. We contend that this lack of attention has, at least partly, produced recommendations that ultimately could harm digital confidentiality performance. To guide future research, we synthesize relevant gaps across the OSCM and information systems literatures and discuss relevant OSCM research opportunities. Many of these opportunities are articulated as propositions. We also discuss contemporary industry practices aimed at upholding digital confidentiality. We call for the OSCM community to consistently and explicitly examine digital confidentiality as a performance dimension, and argue that failure to heed this call will be detrimental to our field's influence and relevance as digital assets continue to increase in value relative to physical ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes stock of the literature around digital platforms and shows how this review can inform policy choices in developing countries. Through the review, this article sets a research agenda for platforms in emerging markets. Four elements are specifically analyzed. First, the definition of multisided platforms; second, technology and behavioral enablers; third, the emerging business models; and, fourth, platform dynamics. Each of these elements is assessed in terms of its relevance in emerging and developing countries. Policy implications for development are also highlighted, building the foundations for a new research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The burgeoning digital economy is characterized by bundled offers of goods and services, many with near-zero marginal cost, in highly concentrated markets often exhibiting competition 'for the market' and 'winner-takes-all' outcomes. Acceptable competitive behaviour in these markets likely differs substantially from that in markets for goods with standard economic characteristics. The suitability of current tools used to specify and enforce competition laws for governing commercial activity in a digital economy dominated by bundled offers is questionable. Classical market analysis focuses narrowly on individual product markets. In bundle product markets, quantitative econometric analysis becomes computationally intractable as the own- and cross-elasticities increase exponentially with the number of products in the bundle and providers in the market. Furthermore, classic econometric analysis cannot inform decisions in markets where bundles are yet to be offered. Simulation and numerical analysis of hypothetical scenarios under different consumer preferences and firm strategic choices offers another means of evaluating effects of intervention in specific circumstances. We illustrate using a model based on the (declined) proposed New Zealand merger between Sky Television and Vodafone and make recommendations for both theory and practice as to how simulation analysis can be used to complement more conventional competition analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, instances of organizations failing to maintain digital confidentiality performance have greatly increased in frequency and monetary damage. While the global sourcing of activities in the development of digital assets is widespread, very little is known about how location-related factors may affect confidentiality outcomes. Addressing this, we empirically investigate two factors with rich theoretical bases and logical linkages to confidentiality: industrial agglomeration and national property rights protections. We conduct a large-scale, empirical study at the product level of analysis, and treat the confidentiality of a digital product as a performance outcome that is affected by the locations of the two key organizational entities involved in the product's development. We leverage modern, web-crawling methods to harvest secondary data from a major, illicit distribution channel for these products and combine these data with other secondary data involving legitimate commerce to derive a secondary measure of confidentiality performance. We find robust results, and demonstrate practical significance of our findings through scenario analyses based on actual data from our sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital industries cluster known as Silicon Roundabout has been quietly growing in East London since the 1990s. Rebranded Tech City, it is the focus of huge public and government attention. National and local policy makers wish to accelerate the local area's development: such cluster policies are back in vogue as part of a reawakened interest in industrial policy. Surprisingly little is known about Tech City's firms or the wider ecosystem, however, and cluster programmes have a high failure rate. We perform a detailed mixed-methods analysis, combining rich enterprise-level data with semistructured interviews. We track firm and employment growth from 1997 to 2010 and identify several distinctive features: branching from creative to digital content industries; street-level sorting of firms; the importance of local amenities and a lack of conventional cluster actors such as universities or anchor businesses. We also argue that the existing policy mix embodies a number of tensions, and suggest areas for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy poverty is a key detriment to labor productivity, economic growth, and social well-being. This article presents a qualitative review of literature on the potential role of intelligent communication technology, web-based standards, and smart grid technology to alleviate energy costs and improve access to clean distributed energy in developed and developing countries. It puts forward the argument that energy poverty can be addressed through the use of smarter technologies— which inform decisions we make as individual and corporate citizens, policy makers, and elected officials. Furthermore, the potential application of smarter technologies and energy mapping is explored at the global, national, and provincial levels, with particular attention on their ability to affect our choice of energy and resulting economic impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While there is little dispute that rural SMEs have much to gain from an effective engagement with e-commerce, the experience to date, particularly for firms operating in remote locations, points to considerable barriers to their involvement in the digital economy in the short term. Despite the considerable effort being made by the European Union to heighten the awareness of the need for peripherally located rural SMEs to become more involved in exploiting the economic potential of the digital economy, among the major barriers preventing such an involvement by rural SMEs is the difficulty of obtaining affordable high-speed internet access in remote locations in this era of liberalized telecommunications markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this issue, Robert Hayes has written provocatively about the implications of the digital economy for Operations Management (OM). Here I examine and illustrate a simple four-stage framework for thinking about these implications: advances in digital technology (stage 1) lead to business developments (stage 2), which impact the views of OM-relevant thought leaders (stage 3), which influence the conduct of om activities (stage 4). This framework provides a perspective for viewing the evolution of OM and indicates how educators, researchers, and practitioners can steal the march on mainstream thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essai examines how Barges' narrative fiction may contribute to a reconceptualization of organizational interpretation and representation, and thus complexity the thinking of both organizational theorists and practitioners. This exploration is situated against the background of an increasing awareness of the fictionality of organizational life, and a sensitivity towards the representational employed by organizational scholars as they seek to construct persuasive accounts of the theory and practice of organization. By pushing standard interpretative and representational practices to their limits, we can reveal their arbitrariness land sometimes absurdity), and thus open up new positions of intelligibility. In the denatured contexts of the digital economy. Borges' Fantastic fictions appear closer to temporal experience than the authoritative discourses with which mainstream organizational discourse has accustomed us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]