Shifting governance structures in global commodity chains, with special reference to the Internet

There are three main drivers of economic globalization in the latter half o f the 20th century; investment by transnational corporations, international trade, and the Internet. Whereas producer-driven and buyer-driven commodit y chains characterize the phases of investment-based and trade-based global ization, respectively, the emergence of the Internet in the mid-1990s heral ds a new age of digital globalization. The explosion in connectivity that i s enabled by the Internet has launched an e-commerce revolution that is beg inning to transform the structure of business-to-business (B2B) as well as business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions in global industries. New infomedia ries that navigate access to rich information and greater reach by business es and consumers are prominent in B2C digital networks. The Internet's most significant impact to date, however, has been in B2B markets, where e-comm erce is reshaping the competitive dynamics and power alignments in traditio nal producer-driven and buyer-driven commodity chains such as automobiles a nd apparel.