--- begin forwarded text <many sniped mail headers later...> Dear Colleague: You may be interested in submitting a manuscript for review for the following special issue on Electronic Commerce. Rolf Wigand * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CALL FOR PAPERS For a Special Issue on 'Electronic Commerce' The Information Society (An International Journal) -------------------------------------------------- _The Information Society (TIS)_ journal is inviting authors to submit papers for review on the topic of 'Electronic Commmerce' for a special issue to be edited by Rolf Wigand, Syracuse University. The paper submission deadline is January 15, 1996. Electronic transactions are now common place in the business and government environment in the industrialized world. In the United States alone, over 50 % of all companies are exchanging data electronically while engaging in accounting, controlling, production management, funds transfer, record-keeping, purchasing and selling activities. Consumers too use various information technologies daily to buy products via their credit cards, to transfer funds, to buy stocks, and to browse through electronic catalogues. We are entering a new era in electronic commerce characterized by firms and customers conducting business on the Internet spontaneously, on a 24-hour basis and worldwide. With the phenomenal growth of the Internet a unique and new electronic market place is evolving. Various estimates (ranging from 10 million to over one billion) have been advanced in terms of the total number of people who will be connected to computer networks as they expand to include telephones, televisions, computers, as well as a range of intelligent devices such as the 'market choice box'. Electronic commerce is expected to grow in various forms such as electronic data interchange and various multimedia services such as interactive television and home shopping, multimedia kiosks and cable-based video-on-demand services. Off-shoots may be desk-top video-conferencing and computer networks affecting the way we communicate and the overall need to travel. When overlaying and projecting many of these and future electronic commerce activities on the envisioned National and Global Information Highway, it is indeed astonishing to fathom the future potential for commerce and economic performance. At the same time, however, we can recognize potential social, organizational and societal limits and dysfunctions. How is the availability and use of the Internet changing commerce as we know it? Given many uncertainties, how can we reliably and empirically estimate the number of potential electronic commerce users on the Internet (in an effort to separate grounded analysis and projections from hype)? Will electronic markets provide new areas of opportunity for retailers, producers and consumers? How will future traffic on the Information Highway affect each segment of an industry value chain? How will such forseeable developments impact the consumer and society in general? If electronic markets lower transaction costs for producers and retailers, will consumers gain by accessing manufacturers directly via market makers? What do electronic commerce developments mean from a marketing perspective and for customer relationships? What are the impacts of the emergence of widespread information technology use and worldwide electronic networks (e. g., the World Wide Web) on electronic commerce and markets in general? Can we envision electronic forms for payment such as digital cash on the Internet? What may be the potential impact of electronic cash on the economy, banks, and nations' equivalent of federal reserve systems? What is the role of government in electronic commerce developments and what policy directions ought to be addressed? This special issue intends to embrace a wide and rich array of electronic commerce issues. We would like to focus on "commerce," not just transactions, implying that commerce denotes a larger process including aspects of information seeking and distribution, negotiation, trust, risk-taking, customer relationships, buyers finding sellers, sellers finding customers, after-sale service and support. Although we are interested in transaction processing concerns within and between firms and within markets, we would also like to address important and essential social and behavioral issues in this setting, without which no effective commerce is possible. Moreover, we are interested in work and organizational issues embedded in electronic commerce and what they mean and imply inside the organization. In addition, we would like to explore how these electronic commerce issues relate to the marketing perspective, such as in relationships between firms and customers/clients. _The Information Society_ journal, published since 1981, is a key forum for thoughtful analysis of the impacts, policies, system concepts, methodologies and cultural change related to trends that may be described as the "information technology revolution." It is a refereed journal publishing scholarly articles, position papers, short communications and book reviews. _The Information Society_ is a multidisciplinary journal whose audiences include policy- and decision-makers and scientists in government, industry and education; managers concerned with the effects of the information revolution on individuals, organizations and society; and shcolars with an interest in the relationship between information technologies, social/organizational life, and social change. A general description of the journal can be found at the following URL: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~kling/tis.html For this special issue on "Electronic Commerce" and, in general, _The Information Society_ is interested in provocative analytical articles or empirical studies that are written to advance our understanding of the relationships among information technology, related social practices and policies, and social change. _TIS_ articles are typically 4,000 to 6,000 words long, and are written vividly with coherent analyses and minimal jargon. For manuscript format details, look at the following URL: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~kling/tisinst.html You may also contact the editor or see the inside back cover of an issue of the journal. Authors of manuscripts for this issue on "Electronic Commerce" should send four copies to the guest editor no later than January 15, 1996: Rolf T. Wigand, Ph. D. Guest Editor, _TIS_ School of Information Studies 4-293 Center for Science and Technology Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 13244-4100, USA Telephone: +315-443-5608; Fax: +315-443-5806 E-Mail: rwigand@syr.edu --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 958-3971 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell The e$ Home Page: http://www.webstuff.apple.com/~vinnie/Rah
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