Chapter 4: Stages of Information Economy’s Formation

The purpose of this chapter is to determine the main stages in the formation of information economy.

The authors use the method of noosphere research, a bifurcation approach to studying dynamic systems, which is related to systemic approach, the method of structural and functional analysis, the method of dialectical materialism, and the methodology of the institutional economic theory, abstraction, and formalization.

As a result of complex application of totality of the aforementioned methods and approaches to study the formation of information economy, the authors determine the essence and the main stages of information economy: formation of technosphere (technological foundation), formation of sociosphere (social core), and formation of economic sphere (economic pinnacle). At each of these stages, economic system faces serious socioeconomic changes that first face opposition from society and business, but then – with accumulation of practical experience – are accepted, opening the possibility for transition to the next stage of this process.

The authors conclude that while the influence of the global financial crisis in the early twenty-first century is common for all modern economic systems, it stimulated them to begin the formation of information economy. Furthermore, socioeconomic changes that followed this phenomenon are diverse and are largely predetermined by the context such as readiness of economic systems for continuation of their evolution, their reaction to crisis, susceptibility to changes, and other national peculiarities. That’s why the speed of passing the various stages in different economic systems varies.