Editorial
Journal
Electronic Markets
ISSN
1019-6781
ISSN-Digital
1422-8890
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2000-04-01
Author(s)
Schmid, Beat
;
Buchet, Brigette
Abstract
This is a special issue for EM - Electronic Markets, as it is our first to begin documenting developments of electronic commerce in Africa and the Middle East. While it is new on one hand, on the other, it completes an around-the-world journey that we began in the Spring of 1997, when we published our first geographic coverage focused on Asia. Since then, the second issue each year has been dedicated to regional developments. In 1998, we examined electronic commerce in Europe, while 1999 was the turn of the Americas. Not long after that issue, we began to receive feedback along the lines of: Where's Africa and the Middle East? Well, here it is.<br><br>This issue leads off with an article entitled,"The Imminent Challenge of Click and Mortar Commerce in Egypt, Africa, and the Middle East." It is penned by Magda Ismail and Mohammed A. El-Nawawy. Ms. Ismail is Director of IT Programs at the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and. Mr. El-Nawaway is Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of InTouch, Egypt's first value added communications' services company and ISP. In addition, Ms. Ismail served as Guest Editor for the articles that address issues of electronic commerce in Africa and the Middle East. EM owes her a debt of gratitude, for making this issue possible.<br><br>Ernest Wilson has examined, elsewhere other than the pages of EM, the links and ties that bind business associations into virtual communities in China, Malaysia, and Brazil. He argues that these virtual communities cut communication costs, increase the quantity and quality of member services, and enable members to interact more effectively with potential suppliers and buyers abroad. In his article,"Wiring the African Economy", he asks, where does the world's least developed region - Africa - stand in this global strategy of wiring the business sector?<br><br>The focus on Africa and the Middle East continues at the end of this issue, with short status reports from three projects located in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Ethiopia, respectively. All three leave one with the impression that electronic commerce no longer dreams about being global, but is beginning to truly 'walk the talk.'<br><br>Sandwiched between the Focus Section is the Research Section. Christian Wagner and Efraim Turban, both currently at City University of Hong Kong, headline this section. Their article, entitled"Agents, Deep-Linking, and Framing" came through the review process with the best reviews EM has seen yet. It is a discussion paper, given the newness of this topic, and aims at a reasoned consideration of information harvesting, We hope that you enjoy it as much as we and our reviewers have.<br><br>Gus Chkaiban's and Max Sonderby's article, AATP: Auction Agent Transfer Protocol (AATP) rounds out this issue's articles on agents. Both at Carnegie Mellon, their article presents a standard architecture designed to facilitate the exchange of goods and services directly between buyers and suppliers playing in the business-to-business space.<br><br>The electronic version of Tobias Kollman's previous article in EM," The Information Triple Jump as the Measure of Success in Electronic Commerce," spent over 5 months on EM's Top Ten List. He is head of New Media/Electronic Commerce at KölnMesse GmbH, Germany. His article for this issue is entitled,"Competitive Strategies for Electronic Marketplaces," and in it, he examines the competitive situation of electronic marketplaces and intermediation therein. The empirical findings of the study are rooted in an examination of German language sites selling used cars.<br><br>"Destination Maui" examines the travel industry, an early industry to make a major shift towards electronic commerce. The article is comprised of an empirical study was conducted among students attending an intermediary level course on Electronic Commerce and attempts to compare. The authors, Bill Anckar and Pirkko Walden hail from Finland, Abo Akademi and Tampere University of Technology, respectively.<br><br>Chang Liu (Northern Illinois University), Kirk P. Arnett (Mississippi State University), and Chuck Litecky (Mississippi State University) address web-sites and design issues in their article entitled,"Design Quality of Web Sites for Electronic Commerce." Their approach is particularly interesting as they polled Fortune 1000 Webmasters.<br><br>The research section is closed out with a contribution from Andrea Rangone and Raffaello Balocco, with a contribution entitled"A Performance Measurement System for Planning and Controlling a B-to-C E-commerce Strategy." Both authors come from Politecnico di Milano and their article provides a systemic and overall framework both of the decision-making variables available to a company running a B-toC e-commerce business and of the indicators for an ex-ante evaluation and ex-post control of actions on these variables. It expands on the discussion and updates some of the research presented earlier in the pages of EM.<br><br>Our plans for the rest of the year include the following:The Issue 3 this year will focus on electronic commerce and marketing. The Guest Editors are Marcus Schögel and Torsten Tomczak, both from the Institute of Marketing and Distribution at the University of St. Gallen. The fourth issue this year will examine communities and platforms. The Guest Editors are Ulrike Lechner, Katarina Stanoevska, and Yao-Hua Tan. Ms. Lechner and Ms. Stanoevska work at the mcm institute, University of St. Gallen and Mr. Tan is at Erasmus University, the Netherlands.<br><br>The first issue for Volume 11 marks ten years of EM - Electronic Markets. For this special issue, we will focus on emerging business models. The Guest Editor position will be filled by one of the first Executive Editors of EM, Rainer Alt, and the current director of the entity that has sponsored EM over all of these years - the Competence Center for Electronic Markets (CCEM) - Hans-Dieter Zimmerman. Mr. Alt served as Executive Editor from 1992 to 1997 (Vol. 2 through Vol. 7) and we are pleased to have both Mr. Alt and Mr. Zimmermann aboard for this issue. It is no exaggeration to say that without them, EM might not exist. In celebration of all of the people who have contributed their time and energy to the journal and its community, EM will host a wide-ranging series of interviews on its web-site, (http://www.electronicmarkets.org). Please join the current editorial team in wishing EM a very happy birthday.<br><br>Pleasant reading.<br><br>Beat F. SchmidBrigette Buchet
Language
English
Keywords
Electronic Commerce
Regional Issues
Agents
HSG Classification
not classified
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Springer
Publisher place
Heidelberg
Volume
10
Number
2
Start page
71
End page
72
Pages
2
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
9315