Editor's Introduction
Vladimir Zwass
International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
Volume 7, Number 1, Fall 2002, pp. 5.
Abstract:This issue of IJEC contains two special sections, each introduced by its guest editors. The first special section is devoted to the agent-based approaches to B2B electronic commerce. Guest-edited by M. Brian Blake and Maria Gini, the section demonstrates convincingly that the business-to-business domain does indeed require a specialized set of concepts in the general area of agent-based design of e-commerce systems. The authors of the three papers in the section situate their research, respectively, in the context of virtual enterprises delivering one-of-a-kind products, in a general multi-agent negotiation and contracting marketplace, and in a specific marketplace of an established industry where a novel and general algebra-based design is tested. It is notable how advanced theory combines with business practice, and how the virtual and the physical intertwine.

The intertwining of the physical and virtual worlds is also the key theme of the other special section, devoted to strategies for furthering electronic commerce, and guest-edited by Bob O'Keefe and Claudia Loebbecke. The first of the papers in the section induces, from a number of business cases, an analytical framework for establishing the potential benefits from click-and-mortar e-commerce. The other paper offers a case study of a virtual community spanning a branch of government and a set of businesses, and surfaces strategy lessons from it. In the concluding paper of the issue, Marla Royne Stafford and Barbara Stern study empirically the factors that make consumers actually bid on an e-auction site (instead of lurking as nonbidders). Consumer-oriented auction sites are, of course, one of the glories of pure e-commerce. The robust results presented by the authors, and the practical advice derived from them, can contribute to the future enhancement of these highly positive experiences.

As the Journal goes into its seventh year of publication, we wish to thank our readers, authors, reviewers, and the members of the editorial board. We do have a lot to be thankful for, as the IJEC was ranked first in quality in the May 2002 Communications of the ACM in a global survey of 62 journals publishing e-commerce research (available also on the Web at www.ccs.neu.edu/faculty/home/tarase/ecommerce) and was singled out by Business 2.0 in its December 2001 issue as the recommended journal on e-business. Much of this success is owed to our referees. Here are their names:

Pervaiz Alam Paul Alpar Dorine Andrews Yoris Au
Sulin Ba Barbro Back Stuart J. Barnes Irma Becerra-Fernandez
M. Brian Blake Robert W. Blanning Patrick Chau Abhijit Chaudhury
Kuan Chen Robert T.H. Chi Roger Chiang Theodore H. Clark
Qizhi Dai Sarv Devaraj Georgios I. Doukidis William J. Drake
Ming Fan Pat Finnegan Judith Gebauer David Gefen
Janis L. Gogan Paul Gray Gary Grudnitski Alok Gupta
Jungpil Hahn Paul Hart Lorin M. Hitt Martin R. Hoogeweegen
Qing Hu Kai Lung Hui Ard Huizing Bharat A. Jain
Robert Johnston P.K. Kannan Melody Y. Kiang Gary Klein
Praveen K. Kopalle Christoph Kuhn Ram Kumar Hsiangchu Lai
Albert L. Lederer John Ledyard Ho Geun Lee Jungwoo Lee
Myung-Soo Lee Katharine N. Lemon Nancy J. Lightner D. Harrison McKnight
Gregory Madey Karon Meehan Thomas Miller Ramiro Montealegre
Peter Mykytyn Wonseok Oh Bob O'Keefe Jonathan Palmer
Purushottam Papatla Donn B. Parker Kenneth Peffers Roger A. Pick
Simpson Poon Gerald Post T.S. Raghunathan K. Ramamurthy
H.R. Rao R. Ravichandran Sury Ravindran Gautam Ray
Frederick J. Riggins Nicholas C. Romano Tuomas Sandholm Al Segars
William Spangler Tomas Stafford Katarina Stanoewska-Slabeva Troy J. Strader
Ashok Subramanian Bernard Tan Alfred Taudes Hock-Hai Teo
Thompson Teo Ron Thompson James Y.L. Thong Leon van der Torre
Gregory E. Truman Y. Alex Tung Ilkka Tuomi Rustam Vahidov
Vasja Vehovar Alfredo Vellido N. Venkatraman Boris S. Verkhovsky
Gottfried Vossen Bin Wang Sidne Ward Larry West
Fons Wijnhoven Jane Kaufman Winn Ping Zhang Lina Zhou

Let us turn our attention to the issue.