Creating the New Economy: The Entrepreneur and the US Resurgence

Citation

Matlay, H. (2004), "Creating the New Economy: The Entrepreneur and the US Resurgence", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 419-419. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626000410565082

In this book, just as the title indicates, Norton sets out to review the factors that facilitated the emergence of the “new economy”. His realistic and well informed approach, based on extensive and rigorous research, makes this book one of the best publications on the topic. In the preface, the author sets out his three basic premises: that the new economy is real; that its emergence was based on networked PCs and the Internet; and that the PC revolution itself can be traced to entrepreneurs from the western half of the USA. Considering myself somewhat knowledgeable in this area, I was more than willing to agree with the first two assumptions but needed persuasion and empirical proof before I was going to accept the third premise. I need have not worried, and the long weekend over which I read this book cover‐to‐cover provided me with lots of new ideas, well‐argued suggestions and a wealth of relevant data and information.

The book is divided into five interrelated parts. Part 1 overviews three conceptions of the new economy. It provides an extensive definition as well as conceptual and contextual premises to the emergence and development of the new economy. Part 2 analyses this phenomenon from a strictly economic perspective and it includes detailed summaries of all the important aspects related to its emergence. Part 3 is dedicated to the Internet revolution and its impact upon Western European, Japanese and US economies. Part 4 examines the emergence of networks as drivers of Internet trading. It evaluates the importance of clusters, IPOs, Internet business models and strategic cities. Part 5 concludes the book from a Schupeterian perspective and answers the rhetorical question of “what went right?” during the relevant period of economic growth.

The answer, of course is that the new economy is real and not only a matter of faith. Relevant proof can be found across the 338 pages of the book, but for those of you who prefer to skim read I would suggest that you review the last few pages, which contain a small but relevant number of macro and micro parables. Anyone interested in this topic should read this book, while those who still believe that the new economy is an invention of US economists could take a hard look at the figures provided by Norton and think again!