ABSTRACT
This chapter presents why network industries constitute a relevant and interesting topic, both for academics and practitioners. Before industrialization took hold in Europe during the second half of the 19th century, no network industries existed, only fragmented operations pertaining to communications, transport, energy, and water. Liberalization of the network industries started in the late 1980s at a global scale. Liberalization has been triggered by at least three different forces – ideas, technology, and particular actors – all of which are drivers of globalization. The argument in favor of privatization claims that privately owned and managed companies will be more efficient and more innovative than government-owned and -managed ones. Digitalization raises even more radical questions, such as whether digitalization transforms the traditional network industry services – such as transport, energy, and communication services – into simple “commodities,” commercialized via digital platforms. The history of network industries can be divided into roughly three phases, namely the periods before, during, and beyond liberalization.
