FAY SUDWEEKS AND CELIA ROMM At the tum of the twenty-fIrst century, global communication is changing the fabric of society at a rate never experienced before. The Internet, in particular, has redrawn the map of global economy. To be competitive in today's marketplace, companies need to expand commercial activities beyond national borders. The global network of electronic infrastructure has played a signifIcant role in this expansion but the technology itself is not the factor driving the business revolution. The changes are driven by the interaction of information technology and customer demand. Customers are not only adapting to new technologies, they are demanding more and more global competition. Electronic commerce, therefore, is arguably the most important economic trend of our time. Its presence on the Internet, in particular, is becoming crucial to the effective functioning of organisations, especially in a world where companies need to deal with suppliers, customers, partners and their own units distributed across the world. A global business industry created by the Internet is no longer a projected vision of technocrats; it is a reality. The Internet is already playing a signifIcant role in determining corporate strategy and in creating values.

Most other books in this area have an American, rather than a global, perspective Provides an invaluable follow-up to Doing Business Electronically, ISBN 3-540-76159-4, in which Romm and Sudweeks give a general overview of Electronic Commerce

Zusammenfassung
The book is primarily of interest as background reading for researchers and advanced level students in the following areas: electronic commerce, business studies, computer-mediated communication, management of information systems, project management, and organisational change.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- Joining the Internet Revolution.- 2. Internet Commerce - Hot Cakes and Dead Ducks.- 3. When Does Virtual Have Value?.- 4. Will You Use Animation on Your Web Pages? Experiments of Animation Effects and Implications for Web User Interface Design and Online Advertising.- 5. Evolution of Web Information Systems: Exploring the Methodological Shift in the Context of Dynamic Business Ecosystems.- Managing the Internet Revolution.- 6. Financial Institutions and the Internet: Issues and Trends.- 7. Protecting Sensitive Information in Electronic Commerce.- 8. Towards Business Oriented Intranets: Knowledge Management in Organisations.- 9. Ensuring Security and Trust in Electronic Commerce.- III: Benefitting from the Internet Revolution.- 10. Small Business and Internet Commerce: What are the Lessons Learned?.- 11. Towards Culturally Aware Information Systems.- 12. The Online Stock Broker: An Investigation of Electronic Contracting on the Web.- 13. Consumer Information Search and Decision Making in the Electronic Commerce Environment.- 14. Fiddlers on the Wire: Music, Electronic Commerce and Local Economic Development on a Virtual Cape Breton Island, Canada - A Case Study.- Global Perspectives of the Internet Revolution.- 15. Consumer Adoption of Electronic Commerce: The US Perspective.- 16. Electronic Commerce in Israel.- 17. Electronic Commerce in China.- 18. An Action Research Report of an E-Commerce Firm in South Korea.- About the Contributors.