Global communications: evolution, impact, and modern applications

Global Communications

The world of global communication is storied, vast and wide. It can also be very treacherous and unpredictable for people that are not in the know about what is involved, why things have to be done a certain way and so forth. This report will be a brief literature review of three articles that all pertain to global communications. The articles will relate to web-enabling for competitive advantage, the role of entrepreneurial networks in the exploration and exploitation of certain peoples and a case study about one of IBM's newer corporate volunteer programs. While these articles may seem to be about different things, they are all part of the different pieces and parts to the global communications landscape and all are worth of at least a cursory review. All of these articles pertain to the practice of business using global communications in the right way, the wrong way or both.

Literature Review

The web-enabling article is about an area that is pretty quiet seven months out of the year. Indeed, Abdul Bari was sitting in his office at the end of the tourist season in 1998 and realized that his tourist flow was going to stop until about April 1999. This is when the flow of domestic and foreign tourists would resume and return to the area. The area in question was the Northern Area of Pakistan, otherwise known as the NAP. One way in which Abdul Bari made the most of his tourist season was through web-enabling for all of the tasks and duties related to coming to the area, moving around in the area and leaving the area. These details would include several things that Himalayan Adventures would need to assist with. This would include travel services, visa details, health insurance, safety insurance, weather information, flight reservations, police registration, current exchange, travel itineraries, sale and purchase of equipment, souvenirs and communication requirements in general. This is emblematic of a "bricks and clicks" model that allows for the combination of "clicks" on the internet along with the "bricks" of the actual buildings and facilities on the ground. This strategy may sound like gold, but it was not without some issues. Indeed, 1998 was a very turbulent year for the Pakistani tourist industry in general. The developing country gets more than half of its $14 billion in tourist revenue from the aforementioned NAP area. In short, the "bricks and clicks" strategy was very much a way to make the most of the revenue that was there and this all serves as a means to attract and retain people to come and keep coming to the area (Motiwalla & Hashimi, 2003).

Another challenge when it comes to global communications and commerce portals is drawing the line between "exploration" and "exploitation" of the customers and people that use the services. Indeed, a journal treatise by Vasilchenko and Morrish state that "in the current global environment, leveraging social and business contacts has become essential in exploring and exploiting prospects for growth and success in the marketplace (Vasilchenko, 2011). Indeed, the word "exploit" is not really used in the negative sense here as there is a welcoming of bringing services to people that want them. After all, if a source of revenue and business can be pounced on, this is what can and should happen for the business. Further, there was some secondary research by Hoang and Antoncic that occurred over fifteen years. That research looked into the consequences of networks in new ventures and/or small to medium enterprises (SME's) and they found that there has been extensive work done on network relationships, governance (Vasilchenko, 2011).