The name stems from a key attribute - products and services are created and value is added through social networks operating on large or global scales.
This is in sharp contrast to industrial-era economies, in which ownership of physical or intellectual property stems from its development by a single enterprise.
Business models for capturing ownership rights for value embedded in products and services created by social networks are being explored.
Because information can be shared instantly and inexpensively on a global scale, the value of centralized decision making and expensive bureaucracies is greatly diminished.
Schwartz (1999) writes that in the future, large companies will manage their purchasing, invoicing, document exchange, and logistics through global networks that connect a billion computing devices.