ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4, we have described the spread of digital technologies in production processes and business organizations. Through case studies, we have depicted the splintering of the economic space, and the much finer spatial division of labor which prevails in the Internet age. In most industries described above, from truck and computer manufacturing to logistics, IT plays a rather subordinate, although essential, enabling role. In the present chapter, we analyze two sectors which are fundamentally based upon digital transactions: electronic commerce and electronic finance. These are sectors where the myth of the end of distance-and geography-has been particularly flourishing. The rhetoric around e-commerce has been dominated by simplistic assertions such as the “fall of the shopping mall.” Since money has become increasingly digital (at least in the developed world), some people have forecasted the end of the need of personal contact in the banking industry, resulting in the massive closure of branches.
