Global IT and IT-enabled services

Abstract

We are now experiencing globalization in virtually all areas of business and economics. Globalized information management has become an important and interesting area in both research and practice. The advances of the Internet and mobile networks have linked the world together and enabled corporations to take advantage of talents and services available around the globe. In view of this, we have organized a special issue of Information Systems Frontiers on this topic. This special issue titled Global IT and IT-Enabled Services is based on a selected set of papers presented in the IEEE Symposium on Advanced Management of Information for Globalized Enterprises (AMIGE’08) held in September 2008 in Tianjin, China. AMIGE’08 is part of the IEEE Congress on Services and is co-organized by China Association of Information Systems (CNAIS). The objective of this special issue is to disseminate recent research results in the interdisciplinary study of globalized information management and to promote new ideas. Globalized information management is multidisciplinary and spans such fields as computer science, industrial engineering, information systems, management science and engineering, and operations management. Research in global IT and IT-enabled services covers a wide spectrum of topics. These include business processes and management in a global setting, such as global workflow technologies and applications, global information system integration and interaction, globalized supply chain management, and global knowledge management. Another area of research is related to the cultural differences occurring in the global business environment, such as global software development, outsourcing and offshoring strategies, IT governance and compliance across national boundaries, and privacy, assurance and trust in a global environment. In addition, there is also research in the area of making use of latest information technologies and service computing to enhance organizations’ competitive advantages in the global business environment. Topics of research in this area include service-oriented enterprises and architectures, service computing and service management, social computing, transformation of enterprise information systems, technology transfer and adoption, and Web 2.0 technologies and applications for globalized organizations. Service is an old concept originated in the commercial world, which indicates an exchange of value from one party to another through some experiences in an area of need that might be related to the sale of a product. In recent years, service orientation has found its way in the field of information technologies, which has to do with how components in a computing system interact with one another. Service orientation advocates the enablement of service-oriented architecture that can sign on and off system components without interrupting existing information services (Zhao et al. 2007). The globalization of economic activities in the world has made service orientation increasM. Chau (*) The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong e-mail: mchau@business.hku.hk