A Very Fast Moving World
The person who can predict what is going to happen next in the field of mobile technologies and business might as well be gazing at a crystal ball. The difficult that arises in predicting the next steps in the field of mobility is related to the rapid changes in all dimensions of mobility. The networks and contents related to mobile business are changing, the networks to transmit those contents are undergoing major change on their own, and the expectations of user experiences from a wide cross section of users are climbing beyond reach. This Second edition of Handbook of Research in Mobile Business is in your hands precisely because of the aforementioned difficulty. The world of mobile technologies and business is undergoing a revolution of such mammoth proportions that no aspect of technology, business or society remains untouched by it. While the discussion in the precursor to this edition still remain valid, and covers a wide area of this rapidly expanding domain, the current discussions cover many new thoughts and case studies - including mobile strategies application, gadgets, networks, contents and myriad related elements. In fact, mobile technologies and their corresponding application to business is changing so fast that an acute need was felt to extend and augment to what was so rigorously edited a published a little over a couple of years ago. While the discussions in the first edition of this handbook are still relevant to business, the world of mobile business has changed so rapidly that it now demands further discussions on how to incorporate mobility in business and what are its repercussions. The thinkers, researchers, scholars, consultants and other practitioners who have contributed to the first edition had also felt the need for adding to and updating to what they had to say earlier, to share newer experiences, advantages and pitfalls; and finally, the publisher could also see this need and decided to produce this second edition of the handbook.
Value of Mobility is in Business
Most of these topics and chapters in this handbook are totally new contributions from the participating authors. This second edition of the Handbook of Research in Mobile Business covers a wide gamut of topics relevant to use of mobile technologies in business such as mobile networks, applications, contents, security, processes and social acceptability. Furthermore, again like the previous edition, this book is a judicious combination of research and practice. That forms the precise value of this book – the value it provides to business in enabling it to incorporate mobility in its business operations in a strategic manner. While there are some pure technical chapters in this work that include topics like networking, security and applications, there are other chapters that bring a totally different perspective to mobility – such as privacy and legal issues, application to the environment, changes to the organizational structures and the effect of mobility on telecommuting.
As such, the mission of this second edition is the same as the first one:
“To make a substantial contribution to the literature on “mobility” encompassing excellence in research and innovation as well as demonstrated application of mobile technologies to mobile business”
Core Contents of this Handbook
Methods and applications, strategies, technical, networks , social and core studies.
Audience
Following are the major categories of readers for this book:
Strategic Management / Senior Management / CxOs / will find the earlier discussions on strategic use of mobile technologies in business extremely relevant to what they are doing. That section of the book will be immense help to the readers in setting the strategic directions of their organizations with respect to mobility– especially because these chapters have been contributed by practicing senior managers.
Researchers and academics will find numerous hooks in the research-based chapters of this book in terms of identifying areas of research, as well as following research methods when dealing with “mobility”. Thus, the strong research focus of this book – especially the detailed and relevant references at the end of each contributed chapter, the research methodologies followed and the discussions on research results (especially some excellent “action research” based case studies) make this book an ideal reference point for active researchers in this area.
Programmers and architects of mobile-enabled software systems will find the discussions on technologies, networks and security directly applicable to their work.
Business process modellers and information architects will find the chapters dealing with incorporation of mobile technologies in business processes quite relevant.
Methodologists and Change Managers will be interested in the chapters that describe the transition processes from existing to mobile businesses.
Sociologists and legal experts will find the discussions on cross-border socio-cultural issues in applications of mobile technologies and the resultant globalization of businesses a fascinating read.
Critiques
Readers are invited to submit criticism of this work. It will be an honour to receive genuine criticisms and comments on the chapters and their organization in this edited book. I am more than convinced that your criticisms will not only enrich the knowledge and understanding of the contributory authors and myself, but will also add to the general wealth of knowledge available to the ICT and Mobile community. Therefore, I give you, readers and critiques, a sincere thank you in advance.
Bhuvan Unhelkar
www.methodscience.com