New Paradigms: Business and Management

i Recent developments in information and communication technologies have brought in a new wave of changes in the business organizations. This change is primarily a social phenomenon, rather than a management or technology driven plan, which is percolating in a bottom-up manner-from individuals to businesses-and is directed towards building of collaborative culture and communities that transcend geographical boundaries. As a result, organizations in every sphere need to reorganize themselves and find new procedures and controls to harness the strengths of this social change. The second Virtual Conference on Business and Management (VCOBAM 2010) was an attempt to explore this subject. Organized by U21Global Graduate School on Oct 25-26, 2010, held over the web, this conference attracted scholarly contributions on the theme-New Paradigms: Business and Management. Select set of presented papers were invited to submit their extended version for possible inclusion in this issue. After double blind reviews and revisions, finally, four papers have been selected for this special issue. Collectively, these papers show case the current practices, challenges and potential use of collaborative web technologies in different business functions and organizations. The first paper titled, " Implications for Improving Accessibility to E-Commerce Web-sites in Developing Countries: A Study of Hotel Websites " by Arunasalam Sambhanthan and Alice Good explores the issue of accessibility of e-commerce websites in developing countries. The study, based on web survey and web content analysis of Sri Lankan Hotels shows that there is no significant correlation between accessibility and geographical or economic factors. However, physical impairments, particularly visual and mobility impairment of users have a considerable influence on the accessibility of web page user interface. Affecting design elements are identified through web content analysis, the results of which are utilized to develop specific implications for improving web accessibility. The second paper titled, " Geographies of Open Source Biotechnology Innovation: Buzz, Pipelines, and Proximity in a Virtual Cluster " by David Tamoschus draws our attention to the use of virtual clusters for research and innovation in the field of biotechnology. Biotechnology research was characteristically organized in a highly specialized clusters based largely on local face-to-face communications; however this archetypal configuration may undergo changes due to the emerging applicability of