Introduction and Literature Survey
An example of digital systems in its tangible form is a hardware product like computers and they are binary systems. They use a series of 1s and 0s to create instructions to run a programme. This lies at the heart of all digital devices and hardware. Digital electronic reader devices like Compact Disc (CD) players, hard discs, digital cameras and video recorders also read instructions that consist of 1s and 0s. Sounds are only one form of data that can be stored in an analogue or a digital format. In the field of music, for example, cassette tape recorders, LP record players, video recorders (including VCRs) are all examples of analogue machines that read off magnetic tapes. No binary systems are involved. An LP player has a pin that reads information off the uneven skid lines of the machine and converts them into sounds.
Analogue technologies record the exact sounds but digital technologies try to approximate sounds sound waves using 1s and 0s when the machine is an audio device. Computers can only work with binary systems (digital systems) and therefore analogue sounds have to be converted to digital bits so that sound waves and music can be edited and manipulated with special effects. Digital information is intangible and their integrity does not decrease with time, unlike analogue media for recording sounds. The same feature of permanence in data storage applies to other forms of data as well. Starting from 2002, devices across the world started storing data in digital platforms more than analogue platforms and, since then, human progress towards total digitization of data has not let up.1 Digital technologies and the data they store are the basis and foundation of the current digital revolution. The ongoing digital and robotics revolutions form the core subject of analysis in this publication.
This writing was conceptualized as a monograph that can also be used as a textbook for readers who are interested to look at the digital revolution in multifaceted and multidisciplinary perspectives. Due to the complexity of the subject matter, including the impact of digital technologies on human lives, jobs and societies, the author selected an area studies approach to look at the subject matter. Area studies have the advantage of being multidisciplinary and so, embedded in this writing, one can find arguments, points, observations and analyses related to the emergence of the digital world. The lens and elements of political science, political economy, public policy analyses, international relations, cultural studies, technology studies, sociology/anthropology, contemporary China studies (Sinology) and history are utilized in this area studies approach to understanding the emergence of the digital economy, tech giants and the virtually interconnected world. The multidisciplinary area studies approach also does justice to the complexity of the subject matter. It does not pretend to be comprehensive but provides a survey into some of the major issues confronted in Industrial Revolution 4.0, especially in the East Asian context.
Another reason for utilizing area studies is most tech companies at the forefront of Industrial Revolution 4.0 originate either from the US or China and this is indicated in almost all major rankings of digital tech multinationals in the world. Outside the two countries, there are a small number of companies from the European Union (EU) and from East Asia (e.g. South Korea) in the same rankings, which are otherwise dominated mainly by American and Chinese companies. The headquarters of major tech giants in the world are now found in USās Silicon Valley or Shenzhen/Zhongguancun/Haidian/Shanghai in China. Interestingly, the largest tech companies in the US and China are mirror images of each other. Baidu is Chinaās foremost search engine as Google is for the US and the rest of the world. Alibaba.com is Chinaās answer to USās Amazon.com. WeChat is the Chinese counterpart to Silicon Valleyās Facebook. Thus, for the first time in human history, there are two parallel universes in the virtual world headed respectively by two great economic powers.
Given that Chinese tech companies operate in half of this digital space, an area studies approach is utilized to understand Chinaās positionality in this digital revolution. These dominant digital multinationals in the US and China are often collectively known as tech āgiantsā or tech ātitansā in the popular media, trade professional books and academic writings. Some have even compared them with the colonial empires of yore or monopolistic trading companies like the British or Dutch East Indies Company (V.O.C in the Dutch case) of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Their dominance (and the historical/sociopolitical events leading up to their dominance) as well as support and resistance to their continued powerful positions by equally powerful domestic, regional and international organizations, states and individuals will be examined in the volume.
There is a political-economic element to this, especially in the case of China or US companies in the EU. The commercial and economic dominance of tech giant/titans have attracted the attention of the powerful Chinese state (currently run by a strongman regime at the point of this writing) and the supranational state entity of the EU. The dominance of tech giants has provoked responses from powerful entities to curtail some activities of these tech giants/titans. Some of these tech giant companies were fined for unfair practices in the EU while others were cited for privacy concerns. Some tech giants/titans were also accused by the EU and other stakeholders of hoarding IT human resources talents within a closed circle or restrict the mobility of these individuals through tacit agreements. Besides the EU, the anti-monopoly and antitrust instincts in the US is also agitating to break up monopolies and titans if they are proven to practise unfair competition. American suspicions of any excessively large business entity stimulate public opinion, media commentaries and legal enforcement against those companies. There is an anti-monopoly instinct in American capitalism which is counterbalanced by an equally powerful instinct to recognize and reward innovative companies.
State regulators are watching the activities of the tech giants closely. Some activities of these tech giants have not gone unnoticed. Tech giants are also so large that they buy over innovative small companies when they pose a threat to the giantsā technologies, or if they spot a good deal to purchase an innovative company. An example often cited by existing literatures is Facebookās takeover of WhatsApp for a perceived exorbitant price. For some detractors of the tech giants, they argue that users of the digital products are actually not end customers but suppliers since their personal data is sold to a third party. Socially, dependence on smartphone, digital apps and online software have also resulted in the reduction of face-to-face (F2F) interactions and personalized communication between humans. Resistance and punitive measures by states and super-states as well as the social consequences of overdependence on digital tech giants and their products will be examined in this writing.
This writing will also examine the perspectives of users who benefit from using the products and services of tech companies. Not everyone is against the dominance of the tech giants or/and the effective and attractive products they offer. Some of these products like Facebook are free of charge. Tech giants are nimble and reactive to the market. They are also efficient in cutting down costs due to efficient logistics, digitization of information that can be communicated instantaneously for rapid decision-making and reduction of red tape, fast to accept innovative products and implement new technologies and unburdened by old school approaches that are swept away by strong charismatic leadership. These are the usual characteristics of successful tech giants. Many also try to upgrade their public image by engaging in charitable, philanthropic and ethically conscious community work. This is a deliberate effort to ratchet up the companiesā image through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Therefore, their supporters argue they are more ethically conscious than old school industrial giants. Supporters of the tech giants argue that they should not be penalized for being successful in cornering market shares and that free market should be allowed to determine their successes and failures in the future.
In this sense, the publication recognizes and highlights the political implications of the rise and emergence of tech giants and the benefits and challenges they bring about. The tech giants themselves defend their record as job generators in that it works with a large number of suppliers and contractors in logistics, product supply, R&D, deliveries, construction work for its facilities, etc. These suppliers, subcontractors can handle certain niche assignments more nimbly and efficiently than the tech giants. Because of these suppliers and subcontractors, tech giants argue they are net jobs creators and not destroyers. They support a whole ecology of workers, entrepreneurs, employees and part-timers through the companies they deal with. In this way, the tech giants behave like the industrial giants before them, except nimbler and with more efficient logistical chains. Therefore, they should not be treated any differently from other industrial giants. In the Chinese case, the tech giants are supported by the state, thus, they are even more complementary with state requirements. It also makes the tech giants more dependent on the authorities. Thus, punitive actions can be swift if there was dissonance between state interests and tech giantsā business activities. Authoritarian governments can ban, fine or publicly criticize tech giants if they fall out of line using their trump card which is an access to a profitable consumer market.
This monograph examines the digital revolution from a new perspective in that the latest digital and innovative developments are not only influencing Asia and especially China, but these changes are not only taking place in the Western world alone. It shows that influential factors such as consumers, history and political science have been neglected in the past and play a major role in innovation development as well as in modern economies. A more holistic approach in presenting business processes to students is very important and has been neglected in the past. In this way, this writing is at the vanguard of a new way of writing the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and its impact on developed societies. This can be divided into 4 major parts. First, this project traces the history of industrial revolutions 4.0 (Industry 4.0) in different regions such as Japan, the EU, US, Singapore, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Chinese Taipei/Taiwan, Hong Kong Special Administration Region (SAR) and mainland China (Peopleās Republic of China). Second, it further explores the specific case study of China. Section A in particular allows us to understand the discursive development of Chinaās latest tech āgiantsā such as Alibaba, Huawei, WeChat etc. Third, it discusses the drawbacks of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 by highlighting the long-term implications of the rise and emergence of these tech giants. Lastly, this publication contemplates how the younger generation can equip themselves to face challenges in the future workforce brought about by the technological disruptions.
Most textbooks however only look at these topics from a very particular perspective. The book is trying to help students understand that the impact on digital technologies goes beyond business processes. Technology management and innovation are topics that need to be more prominent in business studies and business schools. On top of this, this writing embeds the topic in other areas (such as history, international business, consumer behaviour) as well which are equally relevant and interesting and has not be done so far in existing literatures. This perspective can help readers understand the interactionsānot only between different scientific disciplinesābut between different players and nations in the world economy. In terms of its textbook features, this writing is useful for university learners in picking up the subject of the fourth industrial revolution in broadly understood terms. It examines this subject by looking at the first three industrial revolutions and their effects on society giving particular attention to the job market. It then spends the bulk of the book examining the Fourth Industri...