ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on information flows at the corporate or business level. However, in a global business environment this will entail an overview of such developments in both the developed and the developing world, and the social, economic and cultural implications of their interaction. Along with the phenomenon of globalization perhaps the most significant dimension to the world of corporate information flow is the networking of organizations both in the technical and the structural sense. Software-based communications functionality now supports the electronic processing of digital signals and global trade in telecommunications services is growing faster than that in any other sector. It has to be realized that the signing of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) will not end at a stroke all the difficulties of imperfect markets in telecommunications. Many developing nations fear the increase of cultural, economic and political imperialism by the powerful developed nations and the loss of indigenous languages and traditional ways of life.
