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This paper studies changes in coordination and motivation costs between firms in transactions (B2B) over the Internet and finds cost efficiencies, process improvements and market place benefits to be potentially large.

Byline: Thomas R. Gulledge, Rainer A. Sommer International e-business, with the exception of international finance, is still in its infancy. Connectivity is quite common via such mechanisms as the internet and private networks, but application-to-application integration at the business process level is not well developed. This paper draws on our current implementation projects and presents a realistic assessment of e-business integration for the present. We extend the assessment by providing a pragmatic forecast for how the e-business integration model will evolve over the next few years.

Byline: Alan Beirne, Jim Stewart This paper examines key strategic issues in the financing of e-business firms. E-business firms form part of what is called the 'new economy'. The paper focuses on seven Irish e-business firms quoted on NASDAQ. The paper argues that the nature of the assets of e-business firms' labour intensive and employee knowledge intensive restricts the use of debt finance. These characteristics also have implications for leakage of knowledge and dissipation of assets. In these circumstances stock options are an appropriate form of remuneration and help create 'sticky assets'. Because of the nature of assets and risk profile, equity is the most appropriate form of long term finance, but reliance on outside equity creates corporate governance issues and is risky, given control by inside shareholders and the widespread use of options. The paper concludes that managing internal and external finance is one of the key strategic issues facing e-business firms and that this may be most easily achieved with strong linkages/ownership with 'old economy' firms.

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are convinced that their novel Internet business idea, properly researched and supported, will attract the requisite funding for commercial success. While a strong business idea is an [...]

The Internet has something for everyone. From the convenience and privacy of their own homes, at any hour of the day, consumers can learn, shop, access government services and information, […]