The Origin of Value Through Information Networks: A Preliminary Framework from an Evolutionary Holonic Perspective

The worldwide extraordinary level of interest in digital information networks deployment among nations is due to the strong perception that they bring economic, social and environmental value. Our literature review on studies aiming at clarifying the value of information networks, led us to conclude that these studies take speculative, elusive or limited conclusions. We identify the requirements to capture the value of information networks and indicate a possible theoretical ground to account for it. Based upon this, we propose a preliminary framework supported with data from Eurostat. Furthermore, we identify the added-value of our framework with a precise and comprehensive comparison with two state of the art reference frameworks. We demonstrate that our framework, even in a preliminary stage, provides significant conceptual added-value and, more fundamentally, allows for traditional measures of economic value (e.g. productivity and growth), as well as for social and environmental value. Hence, our framework is an essential input to any policy maker interested in information network-related private and public policies. Finally, we demonstrate with examples the wider application range of our framework in comparison with existing work.