The Use of Information and Communication Technology in transnational corporations - a Swedish Competitive Perspective

Abstract

The progress made in the communication sectors shapes new prerequisites to organize and locate activities. At focus of this paper is the new organizational structures of TNCs, shaped as a consequence of different kinds of cooperation, and the competitive situation of places being integrated into these international production systems. The results are based on studies of the use of information and communication technology (ICT) at the ABB HV Switchgear in Ludvika and at the engine-plant of Volvo in Skôvde. Both plants have been integrated into new systems of production by the merger between ASEA and BBC and the alliance between Renault and Volvo. The studies point at the strong correlation between different needs of communication and the types of work being performed. The use of technical means is more common at operative than at tactical and strategic levels of the TNCs. Personal contacts are very pronounced at the strategic level but concern all levels. Therefore, investments in infrastructure for person transport are important at enabling places to shape different networks. The studies show that advanced work can be performed in the periphery of Europe and that flows of communication can take place between nodes of competence located as islands far from each other. The results further suggest that places are continously connected into spatial growing webs by the knowledge-seeking tentacles of the corporations scanning the world.