Julienne Brabet – författare

This book provides an overview of the opportunities and risks of digitalisation and the platforms that embody it and constitute society's new infrastructure. From a management point of view – defined here as the steering of organised and finalised collective action – understanding this major socio-technical disruption is paramount. The book helps to comprehend its main players, such as the American GAFAM, their power and its sources, their architecture, and their impact on different industries and professions, labour markets, companies, and education.Responding to the dominance of tech giants, numerous initiatives are striving to regulate their influence, safeguard democratic sovereignty, promote fair competition in the digital sphere, and employ frugal digitalisation methods to counteract detrimental aspects of these “oligopolistic” platforms. In essence, shouldn't the overarching aim of digitalisation be to foster community development, strengthen individual and collective capabilities, and preserve the environment, while producing goods and services to meet shared societal interests? Throughout the four sections of this book and its 16 chapters, actors in the digital process and/or academics provide analyses and illustrations of the great digital transformation, examining the ways in which socio-technical advances can be created or used for the benefit of all, while avoiding major risks.

This book provides an overview of the opportunities and risks of digitalisation and the platforms that embody it and constitute society's new infrastructure. From a management point of view – defined here as the steering of organised and finalised collective action – understanding this major socio-technical disruption is paramount. The book helps to comprehend its main players, such as the American GAFAM, their power and its sources, their architecture, and their impact on different industries and professions, labour markets, companies, and education.Responding to the dominance of tech giants, numerous initiatives are striving to regulate their influence, safeguard democratic sovereignty, promote fair competition in the digital sphere, and employ frugal digitalisation methods to counteract detrimental aspects of these “oligopolistic” platforms. In essence, shouldn't the overarching aim of digitalisation be to foster community development, strengthen individual and collective capabilities, and preserve the environment, while producing goods and services to meet shared societal interests? Throughout the four sections of this book and its 16 chapters, actors in the digital process and/or academics provide analyses and illustrations of the great digital transformation, examining the ways in which socio-technical advances can be created or used for the benefit of all, while avoiding major risks.

Crowdfunding as an entrepreneurial phenomenon substitutes traditional sources of finance (banks, financial markets, governments) for the crowd. Socially and economically, it is challenging the traditional boundaries that have been set for centuries between industry, the financial sector, and the public. Though its basic principle cannot be considered as a radical innovation, crowdfunding as a rapidly growing practice calls for renewed management, legal, and governance patterns. Descriptive inquiries on "how to do it" are multiplying but crowdfunding remains a fuzzy subject for research and reflexivity. This book gathers the best recent research outcomes on the managerial and social impact of this new practice. The need for theory is three-fold, for both scholars and practitioners. Positive theory is needed to understand how projects are organised, how (and why) they may succeed or fail and how governments consider this new practice and try to regulate it. Normative theory can provide templates and "recipes" to develop projects, and provide advice on which models are more efficient. Finally, critical theory is needed to consider the social and economic impact of crowdfunding.