Internet and electronic commerce research groups

Citation

Foley, P. (1999), "Internet and electronic commerce research groups", European Business Review, Vol. 99 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.1999.05499cag.001

Internet and electronic commerce research groups

Internet and electronic commerce research groups

Keywords Electronic commerce, Internet research

Hundreds of groups, associations and centres have been created to research the Internet, investigate the growth of electronic commerce and promote their role in these activities. Public and private sectors have both been active. Reading the Web pages created by these groups provides far more detail and analysis of topics than the commercial news sites reviewed in the first Internet editorial.

Most major private sector companies have established electronic commerce strategy groups or research centres. Some companies, such as BT, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Ernst and Young and KPMG, have established Web sites to share this research. However, the information available is generally used to promote the consultancy service or products offered by the company. Content is usually carefully edited to restrict access to new ideas or details of research.

Collaborative groups with an interest in promoting electronic commerce have also established Web sites. Most notable amongst these are CommerceNet and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), both established in 1994. CommerceNet has a membership of more than 500 companies and organisations throughout the world. The group examines electronic commerce issues from a multidisciplinary perspective encompassing technology, business processes and regulatory policies. The World Wide Web Consortium has more than 300 members and aims to develop common protocols and promote the evolution of the World Wide Web.

Interest groups have also been developed or supported by government. Few of these centres are operated by government alone; the Australian Electronic Commerce Expert Group appears to be the only group hosted by government. Most government organisations work in partnership with academic or private sector partners. The Electronic Commerce and EDI Centre in Wales is supported by the European Commission and Welsh Development Agency, the ECRC Program in the US is sponsored by the Department of Defense and Electronic Commerce Canada is a voluntary organisation composed of public and private sectors.

Collaborative groups have also been established to provide information and a forum for discussion for academics and practitioners. The two leading groups, ISWorld Net and the Association for Information Systems, formed an alliance in 1998. Both of these groups were originally established by academics and they have an emphasis in sharing and disseminating knowledge. The ISWorld Net site probably has the most comprehensive worldwide listings of past, present and future conferences and workshops available on the Web.

Two other collaborative groups have an academic emphasis. The Collaborative Electronic Commerce Technology and Research (CollECTeR) group is a joint venture by 22 universities around the world (but with a strong emphasis in Australia) which undertake research in electronic commerce, the Internet, virtual organisations and communities. This latter theme is the emphasis for the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Virtual Society? research programme. This programme provides funding of £3 million between 1997 and the year 2000 to 22 projects, and research reports, papers and activities can be found at their Web site.

More than 20 universities throughout the world have significant research groups examining electronic commerce. Difficulties obviously arise in defining what constitutes a significant research group or centre. Many information systems and information technology departments and Management and Business Schools mention the existence of electronic commerce research, but only a few of these groups have a significant Web presence offering details of staff, research papers and other information. Indeed, two "groups" in South Africa and Denmark have established Web pages suggesting their sites should be completed by early 1998. Sadly, these early ambitions have not been fulfilled and their sites remain undeveloped.

Seven of the electronic commerce groups with Web sites have been established by US universities. Leading US universities, such as MIT, Stanford, Georgia Tech, University of California at Berkeley and the University of Texas have established comprehensive sites offering detailed information about research, education and sponsors. Sponsorship of research is generally conspicuously absent from the Web sites of other academic groups around the world.

Several electronic commerce research groups have been established in Europe. Finland, Greece, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Slovenia have well established groups with comprehensive Web sites.

In the UK four groups have been established. The Centre for Communications Systems Research at Cambridge specialises in computer communications and information security. The Telematics Research and Applications Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University has research projects examining electronic data interchange (EDI), small business networking and the application of the Internet in Manchester. The Centre for Electronic Commerce at the University of Sunderland currently has four research programmes examining electronic procurement and one-stop shopping. Finally, the author's International Electronic Commerce Research Centre has a number of projects examining global Internet pricing strategies, electronic payment systems, online banking, small business use of the Internet and Web pages devoted to providing an overview of the latest surveys of Internet use and trade.

Any worldwide review of the fast growing area of electronic commerce research and practice will fail to include some Web sites and research groups. I must clearly take responsibility and offer apologies for these omissions. Dynamic links to all the groups mentioned in this editorial (and many others) can be found at http://www.dmu.ac.uk/ln/ecommerce/ebr3.html (see Table I). This page will be updated regularly and any omissions communicated to the author will be included. We will develop the page as a comprehensive source of leading electronic commerce research groups throughout the world.

Paul FoleyDirector, International Electronic Commerce Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester, e-mail pdf@dmu.ac.uk