Abstract

For nearly ten years, the world political and economic order has been undergoing a strong and violent restructuring. At first glance, this coincides with the end of the Cold War and the sunset of the bipolar world model. On closer analysis, it becomes clear that the economic changes are not only as significant as the political ones, but it may even be the looming transformation of the latter that has brought about this global world change, the basis of which is undoubtedly the development of high technology, and more specifically of electronics and communications. In this case, it is not about their supporting role in business, but about the fact that a new value has been born from them - information. There has been a global shift, characterised by A. Toffler as the "third wave". After the first two, which he sees as rooted in the agrarian and industrial revolutions, we are now witnessing the 'information wave', a stage of global development in which information and knowledge, rather than material assets and property, are the defining factors.  The means and methods of production of competing companies, having reached their maximum development, are now equal in capability, and the only thing that gives one of them an advantage over another is the volume of accumulated data and control over it. With its emergence, the Internet has become an emblem of the profound change in social and economic life that has entered a new stage of development characterised by processes of globalisation and increased dynamism. There has been an increased activity and communication of members of society both as social and economic subjects.