Title: Global trans-border data flows: concerns and options

Authors: Riad Ajami

Addresses: Professor and Director, International Business Policy Program, College of Business, Ohio Slate University; Visiting Professor of International Business, School of Business Administration, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Abstract: Emerging communications technologies allow the free flow of data across national boundaries, which can bring benefits but may also have disadvantages and costs. Benefits that can arise include efficiency, accuracy and timelines in the transfer of data, assisting the smooth flow of commerce, and the generation of economic activity. Among the costs are the changes that inevitably more in the value structure of the interacting societies and a weakening of such ideas as national autonomy and diversity. There are also constraints such as the limited availability of satellite |parking spaces| in geocentric orbits. The author argues that with insight and forward thinking it should be possible to balance the national and international imperatives and extract the greatest social and economic benefit on a global scale.

Keywords: transborder data flow; information technology; communications technologies; international trade; globalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1990.025863

International Journal of Technology Management, 1990 Vol.5 No.5, pp.589 - 604

Published online: 25 May 2009 *

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