The Network Society - University of Massachusetts Amherst

Afterword 433
Throughout this book, it was confirmed that it is not the technological
innovations that, by themselves, condition the emerging
social—perhaps civilizational—changes. On the contrary, it will
always be the organizational changes and the institutional models that
will lead to the exploitation of the potentials that the new technologies
bring with them.
In this context, the clear formulation of strategic guidelines and,
above all, making decisions at the right time and on the basis of knowledge
of the current economic and social trends are absolutely crucial
for stimulating and monitoring the necessary changes. In other words:
full exploitation of the information technologies with a view to modernizing
companies, the public administration and the State itself can
only be achieved if, before this, in each one of the principal fields of
economic and social life, the main barriers associated with the conventional
organizational models and modes of operation are examined.
Without organizational innovation, technological innovation will
never constitute a development factor and effective source of competitiveness.
I recognize that, in a country characterized by high degrees of
dualism and asymmetry, the role of the State in creating the infrastructural
and support conditions for industrial activity, paying particular
attention to the universe of the small and medium-sized enterprises,
becomes perhaps even more indispensable than in other contexts.
However, state intervention, though necessary, is far from enough.
The role of the business community is indispensable in preparing any
national economy for successful entry into the age of the information
society and globalization. In the final analysis, it is the enterprises
that, depending on a given institutional framework and the stock of
skills available in the employment system, will actively contribute to
adding vale to the wealth accumulated by an economy.
In this closing comment on the published work drawn from the
colloquium “The Network Society and the Knowledge Economy: Portugal
in a Global Perspective” I have given some thought to the difficulties
that a society in transition, such as the Portuguese society, has to face
in a phase of change that is as dramatic and influential as that we are
dealing with today.