Colorful swans, innovation, technology. The role of new production factors

Abstract

The modern world is becoming less and less understandable for people and business. It is said that we live in an age of discontinuity. Constant perturbations in the environment lead to the statement that we are facing a chaotic model of conducting business, including international business. We experience unexpected and unpredictable events, which nevertheless have an impact on economies and social life. There are tensions between knowledge of phenomena and problems and professional knowledge of methods of preventing or solving difficulties, as well as predicting events. This generates uncertainty of business models in the global economy. "Mutating swans" cause the peace dividend (profit from limiting armaments) to decrease, and globalization processes to retreat.

Implemented innovations, especially technological ones, become a challenge for business. Individual countries face inequalities in socio-economic development depending on the economic structure, technical and technological capabilities, stage of development and level of research expenditure. The previous sources and factors of sustainable competitive advantage, i.e. natural resources (e.g. land), capital resources, human resources (labor) and entrepreneurship – i.e. production factors are being replaced by innovations and technological solutions. Some of them, for example artificial intelligence (AI), can become both a useful tool in more sustainable economic development and a weapon.