Editorial
Journal
Electronic Markets
ISSN
1019-6781
ISSN-Digital
1422-8890
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2002-01-01
Author(s)
Pavlikova, Lucia
;
Schmid, Beat
;
Rao, Bharat
Abstract
To start the year 2002, EM has decided to focus on developments and innovations in the rapidly evolving area of mobile commerce. The rapid deployment of wireless infrastructure has created the technical backbone for an exciting range of global product, service, and business model innovation. While the wireless rollout itself has been tremendously successful in some parts of the world, it has met with substantial regulatory, economic, technical and marketing challenges elsewhere. In this special issue devoted to m-commerce, we investigate the broad area of wireless innovation, and its implications for research and practice.<br><br>Opening the focus theme section, Stefan Baldi and Heike Pyu-Pyu Thaung's article"The Entertaining Way to M-Commerce: Japan's Approach to the Mobile Internet - A Model for Europe?" compares the relative success of Japan's approach to wireless services, as exemplified by NTT DoCoMo's iMode, with the lukewarm reception given to similar services in Europe. The authors argue that although some of this diverging development can be attributed to cultural differences, different technological and marketing and pricing strategies can also account for much of the varying success of the two approaches.<br><br>In the second paper," Provision of Services Via the Wireless Application Protocol: A Strategic Perspective", Stuart Barnes offers a framework for charting some of the key market strategies and evaluating the possible future development of the Wireless Application Protocoll (WAP) service industry based on Michael Porter's Five Forces Diagram. From this analysis, he concludes that WAP services must in future become more open, inclusive, and demand led. Only in this way can WAP services hope to achieve the market penetration of comparable wireless platforms such as iMode, and overcome the market apathy that has resulted from the disappointment of initial high expectations placed on WAP.<br><br>Next follows Nir Kshetri and Maggie Kei Cheung's article entitled"What Factors are Driving China's Mobile Diffusion?". In this paper, which follows on Kshetri's Vol. 11, No. 4 article discussing factors in the rapid growth of global e-commerce, the focus is narrowed more specifically towards the forces driving the rapid mobile technology diffusion in China. The authors examine a number of factors, ranging from Marxist labour theory through the reengineering of the telecoms sector to China's interest in WTO membership, that account for these developments. Due to the unique combination of factors, the authors argue that a clear division between exportable and country-specific factors exist.<br><br>The fourth article in the focus theme section,"Mobile Internet: An Empirical Study of B2C Wap Applications in Italy" by Umberto Betele, Andrea Rangone and Filippo Renga, presents a wide-ranging empirical study of all significant publicly accessible Italian B2C WAP sites . Their aim is to assess the type and effectiveness of the available WAP applications, as well as analysing the underlying strategies of WAP providers. They conclude that mobile Internet applications in Italy are still at an early stage of development, and conclude that this situation is the result of a general lack of strategic attention and investment.<br><br>Minhee Chae, Jinwoo Kim, Hoyoung Kim, and Hosung see high quality information as a key determinant of the success of mobile internet. In their article"Information Quality for Mobile Internet Services: A Theoretical Model with Empirical Validation" the authors present a study which identifies important dimensions of information quality in increasing user satisfaction and customer loyalty, and propose a four-dimensional model of information quality to reflect the special characteristics of the mobile internet. The article reports on the large-scale empirical study carried out to test this model, as well as the results, which indicate that the relative importance of the dimensions varies according to the intended goals of mobile internet services.<br><br>The final article within this issue's focus theme section is" Consumer Attitudes and the Mobile Travel Portal" by Timo Koivumäki. The article presents the results of a University of Oulu survey study to investigate European (especially Finnish) traveller's attitudes to the mobile services offered by a local travel portal developed in Oulu. The findings indicate that the most highly valued features were those for making hotel and ticket reservations, and that the high cost of mobile data services are a significant deterent against using the offered services. Another finding was that respondents would be more likely to use the travel portal with a PC than with a mobile phone, which prompts the author to conclude that mobile services should be developed as part of a multi-channel service package rather than on their own.<br><br>We close with the sole article to make up the research section of this issue," Online Auctions and the Importance of Reputation Types" by Stephen Scott Standifird. In this article, the author argues that the type of specialty reputation a pure-play Internet firm has will have an identifiable effect on the value of its sales. The empirical evidence the article presents indicates that notably higher auction prices were achieved for computer peripherals auctioned through a venue hosted by an online company with a reputation as an industry leader in computer equipment retailing. Based on these findings, the author concludes that pure-play Internet companies would be strategically well-advised to develop a specific type of reputation instead of trying to leverage its reputation across a number of online merchandise offerings.<br><br> We hope you enjoy this issue, and would like to express our warmest thanks to Bharat Rao for his generous assistance and support.<br><br>Best regards<br><br>Lucia Pavlikova<br>Beat F. Schmid<br>Bharat Rao<br>
Language
English
Keywords
Mobile Commerce
HSG Classification
not classified
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Routledge
Publisher place
London
Volume
12
Number
1
Start page
1
End page
2
Pages
2
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
9275