Читать книгу Global Experience Industries - Jens Christensen - Страница 6

Just like other sectors, the experience industries are driven by overall global drivers, including economic, technological, political, social and cultural developments. Developments are of two kinds. One is the cyclical ups and downs that are important to current business and conditions of life. Cycles are short-term changes at surface level, constituting so to speak the top of the iceberg. Underwater, there is a structural level of society but unlike icebergs, the worldwide structures of nations are not the same. From a structural point of view, the world may be divided into two different groups of societies, the developed countries and the developing countries. Developing countries fall into two subgroups, emerging societies in dynamic growth and countries stuck in poverty and stagnation. In real life, structural differences are crucial. You cannot easily move from one kind of structure to another and in particular, there is a gulf between developed and developing countries that is very difficult for the latter to bridge. Being historically developed and capable of continuous upgrading according to changes in the outside world, a developed nation is a system of interlinked subsystems at high levels in all matters of economy, politics, technology, and social and cultural affairs.

As a consequence of these dynamic capabilities, the developed countries are those that drive the drivers of the world, increasingly assisted by the emerging nations, whereas the poor countries are mainly left behind. Firms not nations, however, create values and compete in global markets, however, and since the great industrial breakthrough a hundred years ago, large corporations tend to dominate most developed economies and the international economy. This is even more the case today. Therefore, the real drivers of the world economy are numerous leading companies and business environments in developed countries each doing business in a huge number of industries. Increasingly, this Western-based economy is joined by emerging countries in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. As a consequence, a growing global middle class of some 2 billion people form the dynamic core of a changing world economy. Developing countries are always part of the global economy, however, so things may change and are changing in some parts of the world. Furthermore, the mere existence of 4 billion poor people makes them a source of labor and purchasing power, although small, that is of some importance. Perhaps, their importance is greater than is generally believed, because much economic activity among the poor is part of the illegal or informal economy.