Editor’s Column

The second issue of our sixth volume consists of two Research articles and an Outlook article, focusing on topics ranging across e-government, mobile payment systems, and service semantics and structure. The first Research article is by Leif Skiftenes Flak, Stig Nordheim, and Bjørn Erik Munkvold and is titled “Analyzing Stakeholder Diversity in G2G Efforts: Combining Descriptive Stakeholder Theory and Dialectic Process Theory.” The authors report on their experiences with two regional clusters of municipalities in the Norwegian government. They combine descriptive stakeholder theory with dialectic process theory to show how conflicts among stakeholders can be identified and managed. The study addresses the very relevant problem of the inherent complexity of e-government, where multiple stakeholders hold different and potentially conflicting objectives. The analysis and novel conceptualization provide an avenue for dealing with this important issue.

The second Research article is by Niina Mallat and Virpi Kristiina Tuunainen and is titled “Exploring Merchant Adoption of Mobile Payment Systems: An Empirical Study.” The focus of this article is on the mobile content market, specifically with a view to examining the adoption drivers and barriers for mobile payment systems. The empirical data collected by these authors provides a rich dataset for distinguishing key factors in this important marketplace. Their analysis results in a research framework that provides a foundation for future work in this interesting area.

The third article is an Outlook paper by Levent V. Orman, titled “Service Semantics, Structure, and Design.” This article tackles the topic of how services can be described for easier search and reuse, and then how a multi-level service structure can be designed in order to create greater flexibility for multiple stakeholders. The implications of these concepts are analyzed from several perspectives and the author shows how this unique approach can provide multiple benefits.

We hope you enjoy this issue and we thank the authors for their contribution. As always, we actively invite articles on a wide variety of topics related to the over-arching concept of electronic services. Prospective authors may contact our office anytime with questions about potential submissions. We are always interested in proposals for special issues on topics relevant to the journal, and anyone interested in developing such a proposal should contact our office.