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3 - Alphabet

from Part I - The Birth of a Megacorporation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2021

Glen Whelan
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
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Summary

As a megacorporation, Alphabet is, by definition, an organizational agent of the highest degree. Nevertheless, it is neither entirely self-defined nor self-created. In particular, it has been shaped by the Silicon Valley context from within which it emerged. Accordingly, the chapter’s first section provides an overview of the key actors and sectors that have helped define, and mythologize, Silicon Valley. Following this, Google’s emergence, success and transformation are described and explained. Then, and in accord with the characteristics detailed in Chapter 2, Alphabet is shown to be a megacorporation. As Alphabet’s global scale and broad scope, monopolistic tendencies, corporate social responsibility concerns and political-economic hybridity are relatively simple to describe, the chapter’s summary notes that it is the megacorporation’s existential impacts – on the extent, and our experience of, the past and the future – that is focused on throughout the book’s second part.

Type
Chapter
Information
Megacorporation
The Infinite Times of Alphabet
, pp. 43 - 68
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Alphabet
  • Glen Whelan, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book: Megacorporation
  • Online publication: 06 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108626095.005
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  • Alphabet
  • Glen Whelan, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book: Megacorporation
  • Online publication: 06 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108626095.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Alphabet
  • Glen Whelan, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book: Megacorporation
  • Online publication: 06 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108626095.005
Available formats
×