Editor’s Column

It is with a great sense of pride and excitement that I assume the roles and responsibilities of editor-in-chief of e-Service Journal (eSJ) from my predecessor Ilze Zigurs. In her seven-year tenure at eSJ, Ilze has elevated the journal to new heights and established its reputation as a publication of choice for e-service studies.

My goal is to build on this established reputation and brand while at the same time expanding the theme of the journal to take advantage of the increased interest in research related to services. The focus on services seems to be everywhere; Services Sciences, IT Service Management, and Service-oriented architecture, to name a few areas, demonstrate that the topic of services is an emerging field of research. A clear need also exists for an outlet for the areas of IT Governance, Risk, and Controls-- all of which complement a service-oriented view of IT. In the next few months, I will be inviting key members of the community in these areas to join the Editorial Board at eSJ.

Special issues will remain a fundamental source of articles for this journal. In that regard, we have already begun to foster partnerships with tracks and mini-tracks at leading conferences, such as AMCIS and ICIS. We are always happy to entertain inquiries related to fast-tracking of articles from key conferences. We will, however, remain committed to the existing mission of the journal: to publish articles (both research and market outlook) on technology-enabled services in business and government.

In this issue, we present three articles, two of which are based in the health care industry. The first research article, by Robin Poston, Katie Suda, and Colin Onita, is titled, “Information Sources Consulted And Found Useful In Answering Drug-Related Questions.” This study examines the issue of how best to find useful answers to drug-related queries on the Internet. The authors use media richness theory to construct their hypotheses about the use of information sources, and their findings indicate that the type of questions being asked decisively influences how pharmacists and health care professionals select information sources.

The second research article, by Joung Yeon “J.Y.” Kim, is titled “Online Reverse Auctions for Outsourcing Small Software Projects: Determinants of Vendor Selection.” Drawing on theories from economics, resource dependency, and software risk management, the article examines the vendor selection process for outsourcing small-scale IT projects using online service marketplaces. The findings from this study are broadly applicable to online auctions.

The third article is a Market Outlook paper by Edgar Huang entitled “Six Cases of E-Health Videos on Hospital Web Sites.” Huang investigates how hospitals are using Web 2.0 technologies, such as videos, for marketing purposes. The author presents some suggestions regarding the implementation of this technology that should be of interest to hospitals and other businesses alike.