Pushing the Digital Frontier: Insights into the Changing Landscape of E-Business [Hardcover]

Nirmal Pal (Author), Judith M. Ray (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2001

"Pushing the Digital Frontier" contains some of the most innovative, forward-thinking analyses available of the far-reaching effects of the digital revolution on traditional businesses. Each chapter provides cutting-edge research and guidance on specific topics, including customer service, technology, business processes, performance measurement and more. The chapters are written by some of the heavy hitters of the academic and corporate worlds and the book has a strong hands-on management focus. "Pushing the Digital Frontier" is not just another "how to win on the Web" book, or a book that merely describes the effect of the digital revolution. Instead, it blends the two - supplying a big-think book about the Internet revolution's sweeping changes with practical applications on how to revamp organizational processes and individual skills to stay competitive. The book includes many examples of companies undergoing the transformation to e-business management.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The editors, affiliated with the new eBusiness Research Center at Penn State, offer flexible best-practices models for strategic challenges facing businesses in the new economy.Their concerns include measuring return on e-business investments and assets (including knowledge), developing markets through Web personalization, and managing technology and regulatory issues. However, the breadth of their reach and the depth of their analysis may overwhelm uninitiated readers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Pal is the executive director of the eBusiness Research Center at The Pennsylvania State University. He previously headed IBM's e-business consulting practice worldwide. Ray is senior research associate at the eBusiness Research Center.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1st edition (June 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814406440
• ISBN-13: 978-0814406441
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,777,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, September 25, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pushing the Digital Frontier: Insights into the Changing Landscape of E-Business (Hardcover)

The Wild West days of the dot-com craze are behind us, but e-business strategy remains a largely uncharted frontier. In fact, e-commerce seems more bewildering than ever, now that many of the strategic maxims that the Internet bubble was built on have been proved false. To help you get a handle on the revolutionary technology that has survived the collapse, Nirmal Pal and Judith M. Ray have collected articles by researchers and executives, including many from their home base, the e-Business Research Center at Pennsylvania State University. This anthology constitutes a solid and well-researched book, which has sufficient gravitas (and jargon) for an academic and enough practical information for an entrepreneur. The multiple authors sometimes overlap as they dissect various e-business approaches, but all offer worthwhile ideas. We [...] recommend this book to executives at any company, since Internet technology is now ubiquitous, and distinctions between old economy and New Economy are fast falling by the wayside.

5.0 out of 5 stars Explorations of an Unfamiliar and Volatile "Landscape", July 25, 2001

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pushing the Digital Frontier: Insights into the Changing Landscape of E-Business (Hardcover)

The various authors examine "key themes" that intersect all manner of changes now occurring during what they characterize as an "information revolution": free agency, compressed supply chains, co-opetition, obliteration of boundaries, e-leadership, the elimination of hierarchies, emergence of electronic marketplaces ("bazaars"), club membership, and finally, "trust brokers" who serve as "an incentive and penalty mechanism to uphold the `digital order' in global, real-time electronic markets." The material is presented and then developed by within 14 chapters. In Chapter 1, for example, Ghadar and Leonard "deliberate on how the digital economy is forcing a fundamental and permanent shift in the way enterprise strategies are developed, and in the process raise significant new challenges for managers. In Chapter 7, Bhargava and Lee "provide valuable insights about emerging technologies and practices that will help organizations remain open and flexible in response to the changing technological environment so that past information technology investments remain useful and valuable in the future." And in the final chapter, Loomis and Gerhard "identify several strategic issues facing executives who must lead or interact within the e-government environment." All manner of forces are driving the expansion and consequent complexity of the "digital frontier" and at an ever-increasing velocity. Here in a single source are a range and diversity of perspectives on this process. The editors are to be commended on the selection and presentation of the 14 separate but inter-related essays. I also appreciate the "About the Contributors" section which identifies dozens of supplementary sources to consult for those to wish to explore specific issues in much greater depth. Those who share my regard for this book are urged to check out Profit from the Core, written by Chris Zook with James Allen, which suggests a number of growth strategies which are also worthy of careful consideration.

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for business and IT executives, June 25, 2001

By 

Jack Rothera (Biddeford, Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pushing the Digital Frontier: Insights into the Changing Landscape of E-Business (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful collection of leading edge research and practical advice from experts in the field of e-business, e-commerce, and e-"anything". The authors and editors have created a very timely set of e-business thinking, imperatives, and recommendations, as well as practical and real life examples to cement the concepts. I highly recommend this book!