Int. Journal of Business Science and Applied Management / Business-and-Management.com

EDITORIAL

This special issue was born from a Workshop organized by the e-Business & e-Government

Special Interest Group of the British Academy of Management (BAM), held on the 3rd-4th May at

Brunel University Business School in London. The central theme of the workshop was on the

relationship between e-Business and Information Systems (IS) research. Over 40 participants from all

over the UK gathered at the event to present, discuss and debate relevant issues concerning the

common research agenda between these two overlapping but increasingly distinctive fields of inquiries.

Over the last 10 years or so, e-Business and e-Government research has evolved and expanded

considerably, and it has now become firmly established as a field of inquiry with growing academic,

practical and policy interests. This raises serious issues with regard to its relationships with IS

research, especially in terms of their focuses, boundaries, target audiences, as well as key research

questions, as rapidly evolving disciplines.

Back in the 1990s, there were intense debates about the nature and scope of IS as a discipline. The

UKAIS defined information systems as the means by which ‘people and organisations, utilising

technologies, gather, process, store, use and disseminate information’. The domain involves ‘the study

of theories and practices related to the social and technological phenomena, which determine the

development, use and effects of information systems in organisations and society’. Such a broad

perspective was echoed by international IS organizations, such as the International Federation for

Information Processing (IFIP), especially its working group 8.2, which focuses on the interactions

between information systems and organization. The debate generated rapid theoretical and

methodological developments in the 1990s with increased the profile of the researchers involved.

However, by the late-1990s, the IS community was so concerned with the nature of the discipline and

the various conceptual and methodological issues involved that many other important aspects of the IS

domain were increasingly side-lined. The shift was clearly reflected in the focus of IS conferences and

journals, which somehow helped to alienate many IS researchers who were primarily concerned with

the applications and business impacts of information systems, as well as the practice communities that

IS was supposed to serve and inform.

Also during this period, the Internet was opened up for commercial exploitation, and e-Commerce

and e-Business increasingly captured the attention of people from many different domains. Different

from IS research which focuses on the means by which ‘people and organisations, utilising

technologies, gather, process, store, use and disseminate information’, E-Business and e-Commerce

research focuses on using electronic means to facilitate new ways of buying and selling, servicing

customers, collaborating with business partners, and conducting transactions within an organisation. In

particular, research and applications were extended rapidly from the initial focus on dot.coms and

Internet only companies and buying and selling via electronic channels, to wider issues including

transforming existing businesses through the Internet and related technologies; integration within and

between organisations and breaking down organisational barriers and boundaries; and enabling new

ways of doing things that were not possible in the past via Internet and related technologies. The

interest was so strong that even the dot.com crash of 2001 failed to dampen enthusiasm for very long,

and by 2005 there were already talks of a ‘Second Internet Boom’, characterised by the rapid

developments of social networking, SOA, Web2.0, Skype, Youtube, iTune, mobile devices, RFID, and

MMORPGs, to name but a few. New technologies, applications, ideas and new companies are

constantly emerging which helped to sustain the enthusiasm.

Today, both e-Business and information systems research are doing well, but perhaps for different

reasons, and in subtly different ways. Despite the apparent common ground between them, the

divergence – and the gap between them - is also growing rapidly. It is important for us to reflect on the

nature and scope of our work and coordinate our efforts more effectively. At the Brunel workshop, all

the participants agreed that there were many mutually beneficial opportunities for collaborations in

research and publications and in influencing practice, policy and public perceptions. The presentations

and debates at the workshop highlighted some of the key issues, explored common interests and

identified a number of ways forward. In particular, new opportunities for collaboration between e-

Business and e-Government researchers and IS specialists have been identified, as well as the need for

stronger links between the e-Business and e-Government SIG with various IS communities, such as the

UK academy for Information Systems (UKAIS).

This special issue of the International Journal of Business Science and Applied Management is

dedicated to continuing and sustaining our discussions and debate of the relationship between e-

Business & e-Government and information systems research. We hope it will help contribute to the

development of a common agenda. After the Brunel workshop, all participants were encouraged to

submit their papers to this special issue and an open call for papers was also released. Many papers