Editorial Preface Special Issue - Electronic Communication Adoption and Service Provider Strategy

INTRODUCTION The motivation for this special issue comes from the continued worldwide growth in the use of electronic mail, instant messaging, and related electronic communication/ coordination technologies. Watch television or read a magazine, and you will see news and advertising related to these technologies and offers to provide a wide range of services. Individuals and companies have recognized that there are numerous benefits to using these technologies, including cost reduction compared to alternative communication technologies, ease of use, effective communication and collaboration with geographically dispersed users, communication with family and friends, and the list goes on. But there also is a number of threats that have arisen because of these same technologies. Spam and its instant messaging counterpart, spim, continues to grow at a healthy rate, which has forced users to deal with more and more unwanted messages through anti-spam software and other non-technical measures, such as being aware of the likelihood that an individual message is spam. Email addresses wind up on lists that are sold, leading to annoyance and privacy issues for individual users. Tricking individuals into providing private information (phishing) is a growing problem. New viruses are transmitted through this common communication infrastructure, which potentially damages software and data worldwide. These issues make electronic communication adoption and service provider strategy an important area for research. The following four articles provide an interesting cross-section of studies that address research and managerial issues in this area.