Editorial Board of This Issue Efficiency of Virtual Organisations --the Case of Agi-- Efficiency of Virtual Organisations--the Case of Agi— " Computers Everywhere, except in Productivity Statistics " 2. Introduction

1. Abstract: The emerge and increasing performance of new information and communication technologies (ICT) has enabled new organisational models of coordination and cooperation. Since the early nineties Virtual Organisations (VOs) as one of these new models have been in the focus of scientific research. Among the most frequently postulated characteristics and advantages of this new ICT-enabled organisational setting are: • High flexibility in rapidly changing environments (like the internet world), • customer-focussed business and service models, • increased competitiveness. These criteria seem to give evidence for VOs' potential to have better input/output ratios than other organisational arrangements. It is therefore an established assumption that VOs have the potential to be very efficient and effective. But these assumptions have hardly been cha llenged in literature. This paper addresses the largely unexplored issue of efficiency of VOs as organisational setting and of ICT-use within them. The paper defines a theoretical framework for assessing efficiency. Starting from the established eclectic approach ITENOF [1, 2], elements from the standpoint of transaction costs, core competencies and from sociology are combined. Interdependences between use of ICT and organisational setting as major factors for efficiency are considered. The authors derive relevant criteria for both organisational setting and use of ICT while ICT potentials and its application receive a Efficiency of Virtual Organisations –The Case of AGI-Electronic Journal of Organizational Virtualness 14 special emphasis. Thus this paper widens the established framework ITENOF with strategic and efficiency-focused theories and extends the already existing aspects of ICT-use in the approach. Due to the scientifically une xplored and highly complex problem of efficiency of VOs a qualitative research design is used. Therefore the paper closes by applying the approach to the case of AGI, one of the biggest privately held multimedia agencies in Germany. Based on the theoretical framework two projects within AGI are analysed in depth; one in a virtualised setting, the other one in an integrated organisational setting. Since the early nineties there have been myriads of publications on VOs. As new ICT emerges and its performance has been increasing for years, the possibility of overcoming time and space by using ICT has enabled new ways of cooperation [1-6]. Highly specia lised units can easily collaborate according to their own core competencies and in order to fulfil a mission. Such an organisation, based on its members core competencies, can be considered as a " breed of best " [7]. …