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Introduction to E-business Management and strategy
Preface
The twentieth century will be remembered for the rapid changes in
technology every bit as much as the social and political upheavals
that changed the lives of so many people. In fact, such has been the
speed of development of new products, devices and gadgets that it is
often easy to become ambivalent about technological advance.
However, some inventions are of such life-changing significance
that they make everyone sit up and take notice. Few technologies
can be considered revolutionary in the impact they have had on
society. Certainly, the telephone, television, air travel and some
medical advances can be considered revolutionary in this context.
To this list can be added the internet as a means of communication.
Although there are some sections of society for whom the internet
remains an alien device, the majority of people in countries with
internet access have made use of this technology for a myriad of
reasons, including education, entertainment, information, business
and communication. The internet has been a catalyst for change in
the way people communicate and has drawn the attention of diverse
bodies including government, police and security agencies, the legal
profession, public sector organisations, educational establishments
and many, many more.
The business community has been fundamentally changed by the
advent of the internet as a means of communication and trading. The
development of the World Wide Web in the mid 1990s opened up the
commercial viability of the internet as, for the first time, ordinary
citizens were able to access the resources that it held. Soon, the
number of websites increased from tens of thousands to millions. The
internet has become an integral part of many organisations’ means
of undertaking business. It can be used as an additional channel
through which businesses communicate with and trade with
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