Information Communication Technologies and Emerging Business Strategies

In the information communication technologies (ICT) field, there is a vacuum among disciplines, as well as between business research and academic studies, due to the rapid development of new technologies. Information Communication Technologies and Emerging Business Strategies fills this void by following an interdisciplinary approach to emerging markets, information and communication technologies. Information Communication Technologies and Emerging Business Strategies creates awareness of changes in cultures of lifestyle consumption, which is both theoretically and empirically explored across multiple nations. This yields insight into the relationships between emerging businesses utilizing cutting-edge technologies and cultural perspectives, from the viewpoint of consumers.

Shenja van der Graaf holds degrees in media, business, and performing arts. She has spent time at Utrecht University, Leiden University, and MIT, and is affiliated with the Oxford Internet Institute, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, MIT’s Convergence Culture Consortium (C3), and the London School of Economics. She was awarded a scholarship from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences and the Japan-Netherlands Institute in Tokyo. At Hakuhodo’s Institute of Life & Living she focused on the Japanese media industry and American and European markets. Starting out with an interest in the Hollywood industry and audience research, she has moved on to the organization of media firms and strategy formation regarding issues of digitization, while employing her experience in an extensive international network of companies including MTV, Sony, BMG, Warner Bros., THQ, Granada, and Endemol.

Yuichi Washida is a research director at Hakuhodo Inc., and a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at The University of Tokyo, Japan. He is also a research affiliate in the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT. His research focuses on the social innovation process in the information age. He organized the collaborative research project with Ericsson Consumer & Enterprise Lab and the Utrecht University in 2003, which is one of the basic resources in this book. He is now conducting several interdisciplinary research projects related with the network science, complex systems, innovation studies, and new media studies.