Information and communications technology: A comparative view of technological determinism

Abstract

Misinterpretations by techno-centric managers hold that advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) are the prime causal factors in future business growth and that technology is an independent variable from which operational performance can be predicted. Technology pundits and economic futurists are convinced that the 'new economy' has indeed become reality as competitive pressures dramatically rise as a result of the increasing interdependencies forming among competing nations and firms. This competition has been made possible, in part, by the commercially viable World Wide Web and its superstructure known as the Internet. This paper scrutinizes the invaluable role played by information and communications technologies and the technological determinism they propagate.