E-Commerce and V-Business

14

Virtuality in the ITindustry

Pascal Sieber

Introduction

The concept of virtuality is based in general accounts of a new corporate world in which companies co-operate spontaneously in order to exploit temporary market opportunities (see Davidow and Malone, 1992; Malone and Rockart, 1993; Rodal and Mulder, 1993; Scotton, 1993; Sheridan, 1993; Goldman et al., 1994; Hamel and Prahalad, 1994; Birchall and Lyons, 1995; Sydow, 1996). Virtual organizing leads to greater flexibility in forming alliances and ultimately to the removal of geographic ties. In achieving this objective, the use of open, freely accessible and flexible information and communication systems (ICS) is often a prerequisite.

In sectors with a tradition of collaborative arrangements ...