From the Special Issue Editors: Information Technology in Transition Economies

INTRODUCTION Although the Berlin Wall fell more than two decades ago and most formerly communist countries now actively participate in the global economic community, relatively little research on IT in these transition economies has appeared in the leading academic journals. Moreover, a quick review of the compositions of review boards of many leading journals in IS reveals that virtually none of the senior or associate editors is affiliated with an institution located in countries of the former Eastern Bloc. This is in spite of many of these journals recently having put substantial efforts into “internationalizing” their publication agenda. It appears though that the magnitude and importance of the political and economic changes in countries formerly behind the Iron Curtain, and the accompanying IT issues remain largely unrecognized by most main stream IS researchers and journal editors. This underrepresentation of published research on IT in transition economies provides the motivation for our special issue. In this editorial, besides introducing the contributed articles, we will also try to outline the scope of potential research on IT in transition economies. First, we clarify what, in our view, constitutes a transition economy, and how it might differ not only from a fully developed economy, but also from a developing or emerging economy. We point out typical characteristics of transition economies, and how those affect the business environment. Furthermore, we discuss how IT may be used differently in such an environment, and what factors may affect research on IT in transition economies.