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How information flows through an organization is important to many organizational processes. The information people receive influences the perceptions they have of the organization they work for and the tasks they are assigned. Electronic mail constitutes a new medium in organizational communication. It may alter some of the information flow in the organizations in which it is used. My analysis suggests that some new communication occurs in large organizations that have electronic mail. I suggest that this new communication occurs because the way electronic mail is organized allows people to find other people with common interests at a low cost to either party. This new communication creates links between people who would otherwise not share information. Granovetter's work on the significance of weak ties suggests that such connections may have substantial influence on the way in which behavior is shaped and constrained by one's network and in the manipulation of networks to achieve specific goals. These processes are important to organizational socialization and problem solving, respectively. Other functions of large formal organizations may also be affected.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This paper discusses key themes from British Library funded research carried out between 1995 and 1997 into electronic communication in academic libraries in the UK. The research focused in particular on the intra‐organisational use of electronic mail (email) ± that is, on its use by colleagues within the same library organisation for internal activities and collaborative work. The main features of current practice in email use in academic libraries are outlined, and, drawing on experience in the sector and on pointers from the literature, the paper discusses a number of issues of relevance to developing effective network communities in information services.

This paper aims to question the disappearance of sector‐specific regulation in European electronic communications markets.

To show that sector‐specific regulation will remain, five arguments are developed based on different disciplines: law, economics, political science and sociology.

It is found that sector‐specific regulation has already been in place for 15 years and there is no concrete indication that it will end soon. Competition law has intrinsic limitations, which, arguably, do not make it possible for authorities to resort only to that body of the law to ensure a smooth functioning of the electronic communications markets. The balance of power in the EU leads to sector‐specific regulation being maintained in the years ahead as the ideal way for European institutions to intervene in electronic communications markets. The electronic communications market requires regulation going beyond competition law in order to ensure the realization of non‐economic purposes. The implementation of sector‐specific regulation might contribute to concentrating the electronic communications markets.

Contrary to the claims of the European institutions that sector‐specific regulation in the electronic communication markets will lose its relevance, this paper argues that it is likely to remain for the foreseeable future.

The paper shows that deregulating a sector is not an easy task and that ex ante regulation is a key legal instrument for the proper functioning of a market.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has a great influence on the global system of scientific communication. The existing system is changing towards a new communication paradigm based on the exchange of scientific information in electronic information environment. Scientists are already experiencing changes in the ways they create, find, share, process, store and use scientific information. The aim of this paper is to present results from the research among scientists and teaching staff at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb (Croatia), regarding changes they experienced during the use of ICT in scientific communication.

The first part of the paper offers an introduction followed by a view on the impact of ICT on scientific communication in the second part. The third part presents the research among scientists and teaching staff at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia, and the findings of that research. An online survey consisting of 37 closed and open‐type questions was used as a method of research after an e‐mail invitation calling for participation was sent to scientists and teaching staff at the Faculty.

Participants in the research used ICT for the communication with their colleagues in Croatia and abroad and for the preparation of research, although much less for publishing of the results of their work.

The outcome of the research will serve as an orientation for the planning of a future research on communication into the electronic information environment among the members of the Croatian academic community.

The paper aims to demonstrate the influence of ICT on scientists and teaching staff at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia. As ICT has become more prevalent at universities in Croatia, it is necessary to investigate how it really influences daily activities of academic community members. Each new research contributes to a better understanding of the change of the old communication paradigm based on paper publications under the influence of ICT.

The aim of this paper is to summarize the developments taking place in the scholarly communication system by reviewing the published literature on journal subscriptions, electronic publishing, electronic journals, Internet and changing information needs of researchers. It examines the role of different players in the scholarly communication process such as authors, commercial publishers, libraries, universities, and learned societies, their problems and efforts in meeting the new challenges brought in by the Internet. The study also explores the need for adopting electronic media for scholarly communication in place of printed journals considering the advantages such as accessibility, speed, cost and acceptance by the academic and research community. At the end it provides general guidance to authors, publishers and libraries to develop mechanisms for mutual benefit and foster the scholarly communication process in the new environment.

The communication environment for buyer‐seller interfaces is being transformed by a variety of new communication choices. The use of electronic mail in business today is especially prevalent. This investigation explores buyer and seller reactions to electronic mail use in buyer‐seller relationships. Two studies conducted explore themes perceived by buyers and sellers regarding electronic mail use. From in‐depth interviews of sellers, some initial themes are developed. Second, a survey from a sampling frame of business‐to‐business sales people and organizational buyers advances the questions of benefits and barriers perceived to be associated with electronic mail use from both the organizational buyer and seller perspectives. From a sample of 103 buyers and 107 sellers, questions are raised about the communicative and relationship aspects that potentially influence the buyer‐seller interface. Findings suggest sellers need to be attuned to individual buyers’ views in order to benefit from the new communication options regarding communication choices.

The development of electronic publishing heralds a new period in scientific communications. Besides the obvious advantages of an almost endless storage and transport capacity, many new features come to the fore. As each technology finds its own expressions in the ways scientific communications take form, we analyse print on paper scientific articles in order to obtain the necessary ingredients for shaping a new model for electronic communications. A short historical overview shows that the typical form of the present‐day linear (essay‐type) scientific article is the result of a technological development over the centuries. The various characteristics of print on paper are discussed and the foreseeable changes to a more modular form of communication in an electronic environment are postulated. Subsequently we take the functions of the present‐day scientific article vis‐à‐vis the author and the reader as starting points. We then focus on the process of scientific information transfer and deal essentially with the information consumption by the reader. Different types of information, at present intermingled in the linear article, can be separated and stored in well‐defined, cognitive, textual modules. To serve the scientists better in finding their way through the information overload of today, we conclude that the electronic information transfer of the future will be, in essence, a transfer of well‐defined, cognitive information modules. In the last part of this article we outline the first steps towards a new heuristic model for such scientific information transfer.

The New York Stock Exchange, Inc. (NYSE) and the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD) have proposed changes to their rules regarding the supervision and review of its member firms' supervision of electronic communications. The rule changes provide brokerage firms with more flexibility by removing the requirement that firms review each and every item of correspondence between brokers and their clients and, instead, require that firms establish reasonable procedures for review of communications with the public. The proposed changes will allow brokerage firms to take advantage of the many benefits and efficiencies offered by electronic mail and Internet communication. The paper offers a practitioner's guide on the latest rulings regarding electronic communications from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the NASD, the NYSE, the North American Securities Administrators Association and foreign regulators. This outline covers virtually every Release issued on the Internet in the USA and abroad.

Electronic commerce (e‐commerce) is the new buzzword for doing business on the Internet. A main problem for business‐to‐business e‐commerce lies in the need for the information systems of the involved organizations to exchange meaningful information. For letting the information systems of business partners accomplish electronic business communication, semantic interoperability is necessary to ensure that exchange of information makes sense – that the provider and receiver of information have a common understanding of the “meaning” of the requested services and data. Traditional EDI is not sufficient to solve electronic business communication problems in an open and dynamic environment. Summarizes the development from traditional EDI towards new advanced electronic business communication approaches offering agent‐based e‐commerce marketplaces in which the meaning of business messages is managed by means of shared repositories for formally specifying the semantics of business messages. Within this framework, XML is the practical foundation for structuring the information to be interchanged.