Introduction

e–business ― hardly any other topic has received so much attention in the last couple of years. In the mid 1990s the Internet and the associated World Wide Web began a revolution. The number of users with access to the Web had grown to such a level that it was recognized as an attractive market for doing business. In 1997 the Internet start-up era began. Each day new players entered the market, and the ‘dot-corns’ appeared on the scene. The dot-com companies often built their business entirely around an e-business model. During the next two years the technology stock markets listing the 'new-economy' companies rocketed. Shares of companies claiming to be active in the e-business field doubled, tripled, or climbed several thousand per cent or more, generating huge wealth overnight for a few lucky entrepreneurs. In 1999 e-business similarly took off, culminating in a peek in the early part of 2000. It was a time of wild euphoria with unbridled optimism and the belief that e-business would re-write the laws of competition and economics.