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Distributed computing architecture has been around for a while, but not all of its benefits could be leveraged due to issues such as inter‐operability, industry standards and cost efficiency that could provide agility and transparency to the business process integration. Web services offer a cross platform solution that provides a wrapper around any business object and exposes it over the Internet as service. Web services typically work outside of private networks, offering developers a non‐proprietary route to their solutions. The growth of this technology is imminent; however, there are various factors that could impact its adoption rate. This paper provides an in‐depth analysis of various factors that could affect adoption rate of this new technology by the industry. Various advantages, pitfalls and future implications of this technology are considered with reference to a practitioner survey conducted to establish the main concerns effecting adoption rate of Web services.

E‐commerce has resulted in organisations investing significant resources in online strategies to extend business processes on to the World Wide Web. Traditional methods of measuring Web usage fall short of the richness of data required for the effective evaluation of such strategies. Web analytics are an approach that may meet organisational demand for effective evaluation of online strategies. A case study of Web analytics usage in a large multinational airline company demonstrates an application of the theory to a practical context with a company that invests significant resources in their Web strategies. The attitudes of company individuals toward the evaluation of Web strategy and the value of the approach are shown through a survey of key employees. This work demonstrates the potential value of Web analytics and also highlights problems in promoting an awareness of Web analytics and how it can be applied to corporate goals.

To carry out a practical experiment into the feasibility of service orientation to achieve a dynamic, late‐binding service architecture.

Literature view to provide a foundation in standards and measure anecdotal opinion regarding service orientation. The review informed an architectural design based on real world requirements from a multinational mobile telecommunications organisation moving toward portal‐based services. The architectural implementation took place in a lab‐based setting and tested with third‐party services that were integrated into the architecture dynamically to test the late bound requirements of the infrastructure. The experimental approach also enabled the testing of the opinions formed regarding service orientation.

The main outcome of the study related to the open, standards‐based nature purported to be possible with service orientation. The findings on the study highlighted some major problems in interoperability and operational efficiency of service‐oriented technologies when applied to a complex architecture framework.

Currently this represents the findings of a single study based on a specific set of requirements. In order to generalise, further study is needed and currently ongoing.

The study has high implications for people wishing to approach service orientation as a means to integrate both new and legacy systems. The work raises a lot of questions about the supposed ease of integration.

The work contributes to a growing body of work examining and evaluating the usefulness of service orientation.

The evaluation of virtual community usage and user behaviour has its roots in social science approaches such as interview, document analysis and survey. Little evaluation is carried out using traffic or protocol analysis. Business approaches to evaluating customer/business web site usage are more advanced, in particular using advanced web analytics to develop greater understanding of their customers' use of their sites. The application of such techniques to virtual communities is discussed and experimentation of such techniques on a specific virtual community project demonstrates the potential for such techniques in the evaluation of social and culture web usage.

The purpose of this paper is to present an emergent conceptual framework for examining virtual communities.

Established theories and models of community, social networks, information exchange, and information sharing behaviours are explored with the goal of determining their usefulness in conceptualising virtual communities.

Explored theories and models are inter‐related and expanded to form a tiered conceptual framework for examining virtual communities. This framework also acknowledges the affective contexts in which virtual communities operate.

The presented conceptual framework may inform information professionals tasked with creating, maintaining, and improving corporate, educational, research, and other information systems. It may also be of use to researchers who seek to build theory that attempts to explain phenomena observable in virtual communities.

In contrast to models and frameworks which focus on analysing individual components and attributes of virtual communities, the presented framework provides a holistic starting point for understanding inter‐related structural, cognitive, behavioural and affective dimensions of online communities

This paper seeks to discuss measurement units by comparing the internet use and the traditional media use, and to understand internet use from the traditional media use perspective.

Benefits and shortcomings of two log file types will be carefully and exhaustively examined. Client‐side and server‐side log files will be analyzed and compared with proposed units of analysis.

Server‐side session time calculation was remarkably reliable and valid based on the high correlation with the client‐side time calculation. The analysis result revealed that the server‐side log file session time measurement seems more promising than the researchers previously speculated.

An ability to identify each individual user and low caching problems were strong advantages for the analysis. Those web design implementations and web log data analysis scheme are recommended for future web log analysis research.

This paper examined the validity of the client‐side and the server‐side web log data. As a result of the triangulation of two datasets, research designs and propose analysis schemes could be recommended.

It is proposed that future work should move on from existing network and system management methodologies to consider enhancing the management methodology for ATM and other networking technologies to meet existing and future requirements. This paper outlines an area where significant potential for further research exists and proposes a component‐based management architecture. The discussion indentifies the technological limitations and architectural drawbacks of current solutions and proposes the extension of existing services and an enhanced management framework to overcome the current restrictions.

Given the emergent nature of i‐branding as an academic field of study and a lack of applied research output, the aim of this paper is to explain how businesses manage i‐branding to create brand equity.

Within a case‐study approach, seven cases were developed from an initial sample of 20 food businesses. Additionally, utilising secondary data, the analysis of findings introduces relevant case examples from other industrial sectors.

Specific internet tools and their application are discussed within opportunities to create brand equity for products classified by experience, credence and search characteristics. An understanding of target customers will be critical in underpinning the selection and deployment of relevant i‐branding tools. Tools facilitating interactivity – machine and personal – are particularly significant.

Future research positioned within classification of goods constructs could provide further contributions that recognise potential moderating effects of product/service characteristics on the development of brand equity online. Future studies could also employ the i‐branding conceptual framework to test its validity and develop it further as a means of explaining how i‐branding can be managed to create brand equity.

While previous research has focused on specific aspects of i‐branding, this paper utilises a conceptual framework to explain how diverse i‐branding tools combine to create brand equity. The literature review integrates fragmented literature around a conceptual framework to produce a more coherent understanding of extant thinking. The location of this study within a classification of goods context proved critical to explaining how i‐branding can be managed.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to provide an overview of postmodern marketing in the consumer context, integrating the relevant literature around two contrary arguments. Second, it seeks to reveal the potential of the internet as a marketing tool that can address the complexities inherent in postmodern consumer markets.

The paper takes the form of a general review.

This paper reveals that complexity reigns supreme in the postmodern marketing consumer context, with postmodern consumers seeking both individualistic and communal brand experiences. Within this complexity, the paper identifies the internet as an enabling tool, which allows direct, real‐time individualised interaction with postmodern consumers. Further, the internet's ability to provide these consumers with the opportunity to express this individuality within homogeneous groups is also presented.

This paper reveals how the internet can allow an individualised one‐to‐one connection with postmodern consumers to a level unparalleled offline. Correspondingly, the paper also reveals how the internet is precipitating significant new opportunities for marketers to engage in and create enticing experiences for postmodern consumers, who crave the ability to appropriate consumption and brands as a means of individualised self‐expression within homogeneous groups.

This paper provides a contemporary and original overview of the opportunities proffered to marketers by the internet, in dealing with the inherent complexities erupting from within consumer markets in the postmodern era.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how enterprise education was adapted from a UK higher education institution (HEI) setting into an international context through collaboration with two Sri Lankan universities. It demonstrates the value of enterprise education in different cultures, and presents learning from the challenges faced by both staff and students in moving away from a traditional delivery method.

Adopting a case study approach, the paper describes a blended, incremental implementation strategy aimed at developing staff and students’ understanding of enterprise education in a gradual, supportive and culturally‐sensitive manner. Evaluation is conducted through an analysis of formal assessment performance and qualitative module review.

The paper demonstrates the impact of enterprise education in an international context and a capability amongst most students to engage with it successfully, whilst also highlighting the challenges of delivery in a different culture.

The adaptation of enterprise education to an international setting can be shown to add value in various ways, including the development of soft skills and building confidence in team working and communication. It can also be shown to empower staff in delivering teaching using non‐traditional techniques. However, consideration of context is essential to effective delivery.

This study makes a contribution to the fields of transnational education and enterprise education in international contexts. It shows the value of enterprise education in challenging traditional delivery methods and the acceptance of such by both staff and students.