Industrial Revolution

The goal of the research paper is to develop a well-reasoned and analytically supported response to the following questions:

Papers must include a title page, brief introduction, the body of the paper, and a brief conclusion. Papers should be double-spaced and a minimum of 3000 words. The body of the paper may address the two main themes in separate sections, divided into an “Industry Analysis” section and an “Individual Analysis” section. However, you also reorganize the material so as to present it in the way that best supports their argument and conclusions. You are encouraged to use headings and subheadings to organize your paper. You must support your analysis by citing relevant and reliable sources. In-text citations should be in the APA style. The appended list of references, properly formatted, should include at least fifteen books, journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper reports, company reports, or publications by think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, or intergovernmental or transnational institutions.

They will clearly articulate the challenges facing companies in the selected industry as they respond to potentially transformative changes in the global economy, as a result of both technological innovation and the potential impacts of climate change. Good papers will explore how these changes are likely to impact the social and political context in which businesses operate, and what changes companies in the industry may need to make in response. Finally, good papers will reflect on these changes might impact directly on you and on your future personal and work-related choices, career direction, or social and political identity.

“Industry Analysis” Students might want to consider the following questions as they work on this section of the paper: • What are the likely impacts of the third industrial revolution and climate change on the selected industry over the next 20 years? • Do these changes pose a greater threat to the industry’s core assets or core activities, or to both? Considering the framework proposed by McGahan (2004), what is the likely trajectory of change in the industry? • How might the industry need to adapt in response to these threats and changing global social, economic, and ecological conditions? • Are there likely to be changes in the structure or organization of the industry? For example, are companies within the industry likely to become more or less vertically integrated? • What sustainability challenges might the industry face? For example, what changes might companies in the industry need to consider in their use of human capital and natural resources? • Could the industry shift away from capitalist modes of production and become part of the Collaborative Commons? • In the future, what are likely to be sources of competitive advantage for companies in the industry? What strategies might companies in the industry employ to create value for shareholders, for their employees, for other stakeholders, and for society?

“Individual Analysis”. Students might want to consider the following questions as they work on the “Individual Analysis” section of the paper: • In the future, how are people be likely to participate in the industry? How might the roles and responsibilities of people engaged in the industry be impacted by the changes in the industry that are anticipated and projected in the first section of the paper? • Will people assume new roles or responsibilities, or with the mix of roles changes, as people engage in the industry as entrepreneurs, managers, workers, consumers, or prosumers? • If the student were to pursue a career in the selected industry, how might they expect their career to develop over the next 20 years? How might you, or employees, managers, or entrepreneurs in general, position themselves to take best advantage of anticipated changes? • What skills, expertise or capabilities might the student want to acquire in order to be able to contribute to the future development of the industry? What kind of company 3 within the industry would the student propose to establish or work for in order to take advantage of these changes? • Finally, how might the student’s social or cultural identity and value commitments be affected by working in this industry? Given the anticipated direction of change, does the student feel that working in this industry would most likely be congruent with or possibly be in conflict with their rights and obligations as members of their local community; citizens of a nation; members of a global human community; or transnational or global citizens?

Concluding questions are

• If Jeremy Rifkin is correct in predicting the impact of a third industrial revolution, how will the selected industry be impacted by the transition to a “near zero marginal cost society”?
• If Naomi Klein is correct that the need to address climate change “changes everything”, how will the selected industry be impacted by a warming planet, on the one hand, since a certain amount of warming is inevitable, and by efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change and reduce the release of greenhouse gases, on the other?