As dot.com became dot.bomb, the hype that surrounded the meteoric growth of the network economy has given way to realism, or even scepticism, about the potential of ICT as a source of new business models. It is now appropriate to reflect critically on the e-economy hype, and to use this as a way of looking forward to new, more realistic possibilities.
Using a business and socio-economic framework, this book investigates a range of challenges for restructuring the e-economy. This framework includes operations management, human resource management, e-learning, e-retailing, e-marketing, e-government, enterprise culture and digital divide. Divided into four themes (the changing business environment, knowledge management, learning in the public domain and e-business practices within and between organizations), each chapter considers the international context and critically explores a key aspect of the e-economy.
Rigorous yet still retaining the accessible format which distinguishes all the volumes in this series, this book provides a thorough critique of the prospects facing businesses in the new economy and will be of interest to anyone studying e-business/commerce.
Biography
Lisa Harris is a Chartered Marketer and Lecturer in Marketing at Brunel University. She is founder of the university's e-commerce research group and is Course Director for the BSc in e-commerce. She is the author of Marketing the e-Business (Routledge 2002) and co-editor of the Routledge e-business series.
Leslie Budd is a Lecturer at the Open University Business School where he teaches in Accounting & Finance and Non-profit management.
'In demystifying and making sense, as the chapters in this book do, of what we mean by the so-called ‘new’ and ‘e-economy’, it is the underlying continuities that emerge as more enlightening than the breathless assertions of change...'From the Foreword by Simon Caulkin, Management Correspondent of The Observer