The Role of Location in Electronic Business: Evidence from Exploratory Research and Future Research Perspectives

Electronic business and new organizational forms explode the classical boundaries of the firm with respect to time and space. Work places, business processes and even whole organizations are no longer bound to locations the way they used to be. New forms of electronic marketplaces and virtual corporations are emerging. The coordination of tasks gets more and more independent from static or predefined structures. Business “any time & any place” often seems to be the logical consequence. The gradual dissolution of temporal and spatial constraints in business processes, however, paradoxically shows a gaining importance of location in many fields. Even in electronic business the decision of “where?” might be of central importance. This paper discusses the new role of “place” in electronic business. Based on the outcome of organization and location theory, on the one hand, and empirical research in 28 electronic business pilots, on the other hand, the paper will show that location does by no means loose its importance in electronic business. The role of location, however, has to be redefined in organization as well as location theory.