Special Issue: Social Aspects of E-Business

i The dust has now settled from the dot.com boom and burst, and the euphoria and pessimism have been replaced by more cool-headed, rational thinking and actions underpinned by robust theories and conceptual frameworks. There are even signs of a steady e-business recovery, and more and more e-businesses have become profitable. The dot.com burst did not mark the end of the Internet and e-business, because the underlying rapid growth of the networked society and economy, in terms of the number of people and organizations getting online and the business volume of e-commerce, for example, have continued even during the economic downturn. Today businesses from around the globe are actively exploring opportunities and challenges brought about by the Internet and related technologies. This is not only restricted to the private sectors: the public sectors have also been actively shaping the development of infrastructure and services, and experimenting with new ways of delivering their own information and services via electronic channels. Indeed, the boundaries between sectors, products, services, channels , and companies are increasingly eroded. In the next few years, the success and failure of many private-and public-sector organizations will depend critically on how effective they are in implementing new ways of working, by innovatively exploiting new capabilities afforded by the Internet and related technologies. In understanding and implementing such radical changes, the need for theoretical guidance is both real and urgent. However , unlike many other business management subjects such as strategy, marketing, or human resource management, e-business is an emerging area where most scholars have entered the field from other, more established areas. The views people hold on critical issues are often divergent and sometimes incoherent. This has created a serious problem for researchers and practitioners alike, as the ground on which new ideas and new business activities are created is still very shaky. Moreover, the development of e-business is shaped by a whole plethora of social forces, which in turn are leading to profound social changes. A systematic investigation of such issues will have significant implications for theory, practice, and policy. This special issue is our first attempt to make some preliminary inroad in addressing the vast range of complex issues on the social aspects of e-business. The idea was first debated at the British Academy of Management (BAM) Annual Conference in 2003 in the E-Business and Technology Management track. Subsequently, a new call for