Global Funding of E-Collaboration Research

The term e-collaboration refers to collaboration among individuals involved in the execution of common tasks using electronic technologies (Kock, 2005, 2007). Therefore, e-collaboration can be seen as a broad term that refers to a range of technology-supported activities, such as those using computer-mediated communication technologies, telephone and telephone-like devices, and group support systems (Kock, 2005a, 2005b). Those technologies are generally referred to as e-collaboration technologies. E-collaboration technologies that build on the infrastructure provided by the Internet have undoubtedly revolutionized business (Kock, 2005; Kock & Nosek, 2005; Sproull & Kiesler, 1991). They support a vast number of business transactions, whether they are business-to-business or business-to-consumer transactions (Gefen & Straub, 2003). E-collaboration technologies also support the creation of communities of consumers (Van Alstyne & Brynjolfsson, 2005), a trend that is becoming increasingly common among certain interest groups; for example, personal health product buyers, music aficionados, avid book readers. The current trend toward increased global trade owes much of its existence to e-collaboration technologies (Standing & Benson, 2000). Many of the information and knowledge exchanges that precede the flow of goods and services within a country take place in large part—and in some cases in their entirety—through ecollaboration technologies. This is also true in connection with the flow of goods and services across national boundaries. Large U.S. automakers, for example, jointly design engine parts with offshore contractors using sophisticated e-collaboration suites. Those parts are then manufactured by the contractors, shipped to the automakers, and incorporated into car engines. The rising price of oil has added another advantage to the use of e-collaboration technologies in business. As oil prices go up, so does the cost of face-to-face interaction between individuals located in different cities, states, or countries. The farther those individuals are, geographically speaking, the more expensive it is to have them interact face-to-face. Since almost no trade can effectively take place without the exchange of information and knowledge, the potential return on investment in e-collaboration technologies is likely to increase as time goes by. Of course, the above scenario may not become a reality if oil prices were to go down, or cheap oil alternatives hit the market, in the next few years. Even if that were the case, there would also be other related drivers toward an increasing use of e-collaboration technologies as alternatives to commuting and travel for face-to-face interaction. One such driver is the growing body of evidence that burning fossil fuels leads to a rise in global temperatures, with potentially disastrous consequences looming on the horizon. Alternatives to fossil fuels have their problems as well. One of them is that they regularly end up consuming a great deal of the very same fossil fuels that they are meant to replace. Electricity, for example, which is used to power hybrid cars, is often produced by burning coal or natural gas. Ethanol may be an exception, but recent studies suggest that its production on a scale large enough to replace fossil fuels may have a dramatic negative impact on the availability of grains used for human and animal food consumption. It seems that instead of trying to reduce fossil fuel emissions related to a higher demand for transportation, the use of e-collaboration technologies should be promoted as a replacement for at least some of the face-to-face interaction among geographically distributed workers.