Anni Sharma

The time taken for the benefits of e-business investment to emerge Most commentators tend to assume that the impact of investment in e-business technologies takes place instantly at the point of production or use

But the benefits (as well as some of the hidden costs) may actually be arriving years after the money has been spent. Indeed, there may be a negative, downward, effect on efficiency in the period immediately following investment

We can think of e-business and ICT investment as an iceberg with a visible part that is measured by the statisticians or the accountants, but a hidden part under water consisting of 'intangible' activities which nevertheless improve productivity

These will include: reorganizing and reinventing business practices, such as outsourcing, and both formal and informal training

One special case of an email survey is where an email service is utilised to poll people’s views, for example the voting buttons in Microsoft’s Outlook can be used to gather people’s views

The main problem with HTML surveys is that many people’s email filters will either prevent HTML emails from getting through, or they will convert them to plain text.

A downloadable survey is one that is downloaded from the internet to a local device and the results are then sent back to the server at the end of the data collection process

One more recent innovation is to include a mobile, downloadable survey as part of a wider project, such as e - ethnography (a subject of a later chapter), but this remains relatively rare

This research is different from previous works because it is the first effort to offer a complete context of Internet use in the buying process.

These emails arrived on the respondent’s machine, the attachment was opened, the survey completed, and it then emailed itself back to the project sponsor

The attachment was opened, the survey completed, and it then emailed itself back to the project sponsor. The general reluctance to accept executable code via email has resulted in this form of survey becoming rare.

In the early days of the internet it was quite acceptable to email a survey as a piece of executable code. These emails arrived on the respondent’s machine

There are obvious differences between a virtual economy and one in the real world.

TResearch indicates that some motivators for online game playing are flow experience (cognitive absorption).

These computer-generated virtual worlds may represent fantasy worlds

This term described the process of giving "virtual world objects meaning, any value beyond dreams or fantasy.

Major forces in the development of health services in the private sector include the growing population.

Growth occurred in all components of the system.

Demand for more health services stimulated growth in the health workforce.

The growth of a health services system depends on the level of economic support available to it.