[atlarge-discuss] FYI: Call for book chapters: eBusiness, eGovernment & SMEs

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-----Original Message-----
From:	Nabeel Al-Qirim [SMTP:nabeel.al-qirim@AUT.AC.NZ]
Sent:	Wednesday, August 14, 2002 7:50 PM
To:	IFIP86@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU
Subject:	Call for book chapter: eBusiness, eGovernment & SMEs

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS

Proposal submission deadline September 30, 2002.

eBusiness, eGovernment & Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises:
Opportunities and Challenges

Edited by

Brian J. Corbitt (1)

&

Nabeel A. Y. Al-Qirim (1,2)

(1) School of Management Information Systems,
Deakin University, Australia
Email: bcorbitt@deakin.edu.au

(2) School of Information Technology, Faculty of Business
Auckland University of Technology,
Private Bag 92006, Auckland, 1020 New Zealand
Email: nabeel.alqirim@aut.ac.nz

Published by
IDEA Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, USA.

With the twin oil crises, advancement in technology, and increased
global competition in the 1970's, most of the governments in advanced
countries tried to be more responsive to market forces by providing
high-class value-added products. This was an era dominated by large
enterprises, strong unions, and interventionist government. It was not
until the eighties when the same governments adopted more aggressive
approaches in competing with low-cost producing countries and hence,
adopted free market policies, deregulation, corporatisation, and
privatisation. Such approaches by the different countries lead to the
emergence of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Being more flexible, innovative and incurring lower overheads, small
to medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) are proving their importance in
facing such increased global competition. Generally, SMEs constitute
around 95 percent of enterprises and account for more than 60 to 70
percent of employment within most of the developed countries in the
world.

The recent emergence of the Internet in general and the Web in
particular has revolutionised business activities. The open standards
of the Internet bring electronic commerce (EC) within the reach of the
smallest of firms and help reduce the gap between large and small
firms. They are becoming more and more essential tools for
organisations in general, and for SMEs businesses in particular, in
gaining competitive advantage and in accessing global markets. The
online economy introduces unique opportunities to SMEs for open and
free trade because it avoids tariffs and tax.

However, in view of the IS and EC literature in SMEs, it was observed
that SMEs suffer from severe deficiencies at various technological,
managerial, organisational, environmental and economical levels. In
most of the cases, SMEs were found barely surviving, highly
susceptible to market forces and plagued with high mortality rates.
Expectedly, SMEs would be uncritical about IS and the new emerging EC
field. Most of the recent IT and EC literature in SMEs point to the
laggardness of the sector with IT and EC in comparison with larger
organisations.

Such laggardness with IT and EC raise concerns about the future of
SMEs in the new century - The information age. One strong assertion
emerges, which calls for investigating the current regulatory
framework in the different countries (developed, developing) and
hence, investigate the effectiveness of such regulations in endorsing
EC success in SMEs. How far effective the preceding assertion on EC
success in SMEs is the subject of the current book.

In line with their deregulation policies, most of the governments
took the role of the observer and the regulator and hence, departed
completely from intervening in the businesses environment or in its
dynamics. How far effective this external role on EC success in SMEs
raises a whole lot of issues and we limited those to the EC
perspective only and thus, the following questions are drawn:

1-      Are the existing guidelines and policies across the different
governments sufficient to promote the successful adoption and
diffusion of EC by their SMEs?

a.      Does such focused policies exist in the first place?
b.      How effective these policies (success/failure stories) in
promoting EC in SMEs (passive Vs. proactive strategies (networking,
eProcurement))?

2-      Do the existing guidelines and policies touch on the main
issues that are of importance to SMEs in adopting and in using EC?

a.      Are the SMEs aware of the existence of such policies (if they
exist!)?
b.      Are these policies useful and effective for SMEs?
c.      How can policies be introduced, which could lead to the
effective use of EC in SMEs

Let alone the new challenges imposed by the recent emergence of the
new technological innovation, EC. Issues like security, privacy,
legal, taxation, copyright, trademarks, patents, and others are still
unresolved and still require global effort and collaboration between
the different governments in order to resolve domestic as well as
international implications.

The first question entails a look at the current regulatory
frameworks for EC in the different countries and hence, assesses their
effectiveness in relation to SMEs. The second question however,
entails a look at SMEs and how they viewed the existing regulatory
framework and whether it relates to them in the first place.
Accordingly, the issues arising from both questions above will
highlight implications and gaps, which needs to be addressed first if
EC is to be successful in SMEs. We need such multiple perspectives to
reach to a workable solution. Thus, leading us to question 2(c) above
and whether we as researchers could come up with measures, factors,
and frameworks that could bridge the above highlighted gaps and hence,
lead to the effective success of EC in SMEs. Potential contributors
are expected to address one or more of the above main questions.

Thus, the current book objective is to identify such impending issues
and hence, portray a path were such gaps could be filled. Thus,
reaching to a consensus between the preceding two main stakeholders
(SMEs & Governments) as a focus is very important for EC to succeed in
SMEs.

Looking at the current global trends and the reported mergers between
gigantic enterprises in the different countries in the world raise
alarming concerns about the viability of the SMEs in the long run and
whether the SMEs could survive in the new century. Unless the
different governments address these concerns immediately, it is feared
that the existing rigid and slow regulatory frameworks are incapable
to cope with the fast moving and the multifaceted perspectives that
characterises the recent EC field. Thus, revisiting the existing
regulatory framework in the light of the new technological innovation
and SMEs as one approach is therefore essential.

Understandably, there are no easy solutions and therefore, this book
calls for researchers and professionals to contribute chapters
alongside the main themes highlighted above and from the perspective
of the different countries. It is believed that such collection of
international experiences and expertise would contribute to
policymakers, legislators, researchers, and to professionals in
addressing impending issues that are of essence to the small sector
and ultimately will lead to the depiction of a more effective
regulatory frameworks that could lead to the success of EC in SMEs in
the different countries in the long run.

Learning from the experiences of others in this field and sharing
success/failure stories would contribute immensly to the global
success of EC. It is by this global collaborative work that standards
could be easily established and progressed.

The area of policy is quite vast and hence, it was limited here to
the ones that are of essence to SMEs and to EC in the different
countries. Looking at the different stakeholders in SMEs such as
governments, unions, interest groups, and many others within the
different counties would provide rich resources for research material
and indeed their role could be essential in the SMEs & EC policy
scenario. On the other hand, research that address professioal
implications, which could be of importance to the above stakeholders
in devising better measure to adopt/combat such measures is encouraged
as well.

The intention of this book is to attract researchers, professionals
and policymakers interested in EC & SMEs from the different
disciplines in the different countries to create a research venue
where authors could share their experiences in expanding the themes
highlighted in the current global book and to be involved as well in
any possible future relevant work.

Researchers and professionals are invited to submit on or before
September 30, 2002, a 2-5 page manuscript proposal clearly explaining
the implication/s, the objective/s, and the research procedure of the
proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified on or
before October 30, 2003 about the status of their proposals and sent
submission guidelines.

Inquiries and Submissions of proposals should be submitted
electronically (Word document, PDF) via email to both editors of the
book.

Regards

Nabeel Al-Qirim
Lecturer
School of Information Technology
Faculty of Business

Private Bag 92006 Auckland 1020 New Zealand
Tel: 64 9 9179999 extn 5114
Fax: 64 9 917 9944

*All rights are preserved


##########################################################
Judyth Mermelstein     "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC           <espresso@e-scape.net>
##########################################################
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once 
they have exhausted all other alternatives." (Abba Eban)
##########################################################
See the UNESCO OBSERVATORY ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY!
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/observatory  



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