Integrating market, technology, and policy opportunities in e-business strategy

This article is a call to arms for electronic business managers and researchers to increase their attention to the emerging "policy" frontiers and employ theories and methods integrating policy with market and technology issues. The e-business environment is growing more complex-not just economically, but socially, politically, and legally-and firms must manage this complexity with strategies that match the amount and variety of complexity in their environment. In many e-business firms, there is a notable disdain toward emerging policy developments or even a mind set that e-business is beyond emerging social conventions, politics and the law (or at least beyond the reach of regulators). In the emerging global policy landscape, few firms can afford this hands-off attitude toward policy and maintain their chance of survival. E-business firms must integrate their policy strategies with their technology and market strategies. We outline five broad questions for researchers to help e-business firms address the interdependent challenges of market, technology and policy environments. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.