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The aim of the project on which this paper is based is to clarify – using Kondratieff theory of long-term socio-economic cycles – how the next (sixth) wave will look like. The focus lies in the socio-political aspect of change.

The article is a short and partial summary of a major project called “The Sixth Wave”. Workshops and surveys have been run in Finland and in Silicon Valley, California.

The project coordinators have been testing the theory of Kondratieff waves with various methods and have found it to be a convincing way to identify the patterns of change. It really brings in anticipatory power to its users.

There are lots of interesting implications of using K-Wave as a framework to understand next decades. More research regarding the future technologies in the K-Wave context should be undertaken.

The author believes that the K-Wave framework can be also regarded as anticipatory tool for business. The heavy emphasis in the author’s K-wave theory on resource productivity as a technology driver for the next wave makes it obvious that all technologies and businesses that aim at performing with greater output with less material or energy input are regarded as winners of their respective schemes in the emerging wave as the demand for these services will rise dramatically.

The author hopes the article will help people understand how fundamental the change K-Wave engenders in terms of democracy and trust, and that the article will also provide a more comprehensive view towards the transformation we are experiencing. The author anticipates that the idea of corporate social responsibility will become much more compelling in the sixth wave framework.

The project coordinators have given a whole new interpretation to the Kondratieff theory. They approach the theory with social science framework rather than customary economic framework, and have also tested their model with the project’s industrial partners.

The “re‐industrialisation” of America is the dominant topic today. It has come about because the United States economy did not live up to its expectations during the decade of the 1970s. As to what has caused such low economic performance, many speculations have been advanced, such as big government, high taxes, monetary maladjustments, the energy shortages, the high prices of energy, etc. However, one group of economists have attributed the dismal economic performance during the 1970s to the phenomenon of the “long‐wave cycles”. This cycle is also called the Kondratieff cycle, and occurs at intervals of forty to sixty years in a socio‐economic system resembling that of capitalism. According to the proponents of this theory since the last part of the eighteenth century, industrial capitalism has exhibited long waves of cyclical fluctuation in income, employment and prices. These economists believe that the “long‐wave cycles” are what have underlined recent United States economic ills.

The paper aims to discuss the major and auxiliary types of cycles found in the literature.

The existence of cycles within economy and its sub-sectors has been studied for a number of years. In the wake of the recent cyclical downturn, interest in cycles has increased. To mitigate future risks, scholars and investors seek new insights for a better understanding of the cyclical phenomenon. The paper presents systematic review of the existing copious cyclical literature. It then discusses general characteristics and the key forces that produce these cycles.

The study finds four major and eight auxiliary cycles. It suggests that each cycle has its own distinct empirical periodicity and theoretical underpinnings. The longer the cycles are the greater controversy which surrounds them.

Cycles are monumental to a proper understanding of complex property market dynamics. Their existence implies that economies, whilst not deterministic, have a rhythm. Cyclical awareness can therefore advance property market participants.

The paper uncovers four major and eight auxiliary types of cycles and argues their importance.

Much has been written about how methods of working and communicating can improve the productivity of innovation for industry. Less has been related to this from the overall development of science and policies that assist this. The changing organisational context of industrial research brings the need for scientific publishers to reinvent themselves for this market segment. Scientific communication, including one of its key functions, awareness, is examined and it is concluded that functions and processes in scientific communication may be organised more efficiently to increase the productivity of industrial research. The new context of virtual communities, exploiting the opportunities for interactivity, provides the organisational basis for introducing new methods for inculcating new approaches to knowledge management, for innovation in industry to occur more effectively. An approach to better understanding knowledge synthesis and the potential role of the publisher, as communications facilitator, is discussed.

Are we now entering the era of a new type of economy, with new rules? What we perceive is more than just an addition to today’s economics. By removing the effects of distance, and giving more equal access across nations and classes, networks will effectively reengineer our basic economic equations. Electronic networks can provide access to skills, work and commerce at much lower cost, via electronic markets in jobs, products, services and education. At the same time, they introduce new economic behaviour, as a large enough quantitative change becomes a qualitative change. Electronics and optics enable the networking of human capital, expanding its application and accelerating its enrichment via education. So knowledge‐based operations may slowly replace traditional capital‐based assets. Consequently, the conventional process for the creation of wealth with its prerequisites for capital investment is revised:economic value in traditional fixed assets is replaced by “electronic assets”. At the same time, the network effect pushes the market mechanism to its limits, through a step‐change in breadth of access, reduced costs of entry and pace of trading. National differences and national markets, all the trappings and devices of commercial locality, are challenged. In this first of two articles, the initial conditions and the evidence for change are examined and the emergence of a new form of economy, or “tele‐economy”, is reviewed. Following from this, a view of the form of capitalism driving the economic environment – “electronic capitalism” – is put forward. The second article, to be published in a forthcoming issue of foresight, examines the consequences and conclusions on assets, wealth accumulation, national players and the benefits and dangers of a tele‐economy.

Education for equity in global development and cultural diversity calls for professional capacity building to perceive diverse perspectives on complex procedures of globalisation. The discipline of human geography is such a “provider of perspectives”. The purpose of this paper is to propose a historic series of how theories of geography and human development have emerged.

This paper contributes to education and training by proposing a historic series of how theories of geography and human development have emerged.

The outcomes of this analysis of geographic paradigms offer options for the management of multicultural education in development. A critical synopsis and a combination of various paradigms on global development seem most promising for a holistic and comprehensive understanding of globalisation.

In particular, recent developments in human geography exhibit rapidly changing paradigms (ironically called “the Latin America of sciences”) and are hence difficult to systematise.

Spaces are understood to be communicational spaces, the substrate of which is enabling communication technologies. The theoretical contemplations of this paper permit to design learning environments, learning styles and related technologies.

Perception and understanding of contradicting theories on global (economic and human) development facilitate education fostering multiple cultures of understanding. The author's own professional experience shows that only esteem for all paradigms can provide the full picture. Success means “collective production of meaning”.

Understanding history frees us to reach future consensus.

The conference ‘The Digital Information Revolution’ was held in Westmister, London on 16–17 November 1994. It was arranged by FEI (Federation of the Electronics Industry); EURIM, an association of politicians and businessmen; and Syntegra, the systems integration division of BT. The conference was opened by the Duke of Kent and speakers were drawn from peers, MPs, general purpose dignitaries, and senior members of the electronics and tetecoms industries. Out of the many speakers, those named below talked about the particular aspects selected for discussion in this article. It was concluded that there was no doubt that a global superhighway would arrive, but speculation about when that might be and bow to define ‘arrival’ were avoided.

Foundry, Design House, and integrated device manufacturers (IDM) are major characters in the semiconductor industry value chain. The purpose of this paper is to discuss patterns of characters' evolution in technology through patents classified as wafer‐design application patents and wafer‐process patents.

Various patent indicators, such as average patent citation count, and the combination of the average patent citation count and relative patent count share were used to measure the patent activity, patent quality, and the combination of the patent quality and relative patent activity share, respectively. The study period (1979‐2009) was divided into three major technology or wafer size eras, 1979‐1991 for the 6‐ and pre 6‐inch wafer era, 1989‐1999 for the 8‐inch wafer era, and 1997‐2009 for the 12‐inch wafer era.

Foundry has gradually become the technology transferor rather than purely the manufacturing capacity provider. Foundry's impact on the technology level has risen steeply on both the wafer‐process technology fields and the wafer‐design application technology fields. As a result, IDM, traditionally considered the primary technology contributor in the semiconductor value chain for the past 30 years, will continue to be challenged in the semiconductor industry.

Some hypotheses are clarified to provide managerial implications for the semiconductor industry. Owing to Foundry's rise in technology activity and quality, IDM/Design House should not merely view it as one of their capacity providers but should also pursue a technology alliance with it.

The paper clarifies the traditional hypotheses of the characters of technology in the semiconductor value chain.

Few would argue with the proposition that socially, economically and politically, the United States is in a period of turbulence and uncertainty. We are navigating the rapids, and white water is all around us. In the daily struggle to keep the boat afloat and on course, we have little inclination and less time to look ahead. Perhaps we fear that the future holds more of the same, that our present troubles constitute a new normalcy to which we must inure ourselves. In a remarkable turnaround from traditional American optimism, there is now a pronounced feeling abroad in the land that the present is worse than the past, and that the future will be still worse than the present.