Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Web 2.0 and opportunities for small businesses

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Service Business Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The burst of the dot-com balloon closed the era of Web 1.0. In the process, we observed the creation and disappearance of many small businesses globally. The dynamic and linked web pages provided new pathways to online businesses. However, most of the new online business models still followed the traditional practices of the industrial era which could be characterized by closeness, uniformity, and one-way communication. A new set of new technologies, called Web 2.0, offers new opportunities, blurs the boundaries between online and offline activities, opening a new era with flagships of openness, collaboration, and participation. In this study, by reviewing the properties of Web 2.0, we investigate opportunities for small businesses in the Web 2.0 era. The findings of this study can provide helpful guidelines for small businesses to begin using and leveraging Web 2.0.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Altinel M et al (2007) Damia—a data mashup fabric for intranet applications. In: Proceedings of the 33rd international conference on very large data bases, September 23–28, 2007, pp 1370–1373

  • Bandyk M (2008) Now even small firms can go global. U.S. News & World Report, vol 144, no 7, p 52

  • Bhargava HK, Choudhary V (2004) Economics of an information intermediary with aggregation benefits. Inf Syst Res 15(1):22–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown JC (2006) Copyright infringement liability for video sharing networks: Grokster redux or breaking new ground under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Comput Internet Lawyer 23(12):10–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Castelluccio M (2008) A new year, a new Internet. Strateg Finan 89(7):59–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Chidambaram L, Tung LL (2005) Is out of sight, out of mind? An empirical study of social loafing in technology-supported groups. Inf Syst Res 16(2):149–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly JM (2007) Web 2.0 allows Sun to shine with culture of openness. B to B 92(4):25–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Curbera F, Duftler M, Khalaf R, Nagy W, Mukhi N, Weerawarana S (2002) Unraveling the web services web: an introduction to SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI. IEEE Internet Comput 6(2):86–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dearstyne BW (2007) Blogs, mashups, & wikis oh, my! Inf Manag J 41(4):24–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Dellarocas D (2003) The digitization of word of mouth: promise and challenges of online feedback mechanisms. Manag Sci 49(10):1407–1424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans P, Wurster TS (1999) Blown to bits: how the new economics of information transforms strategy. Harvard Business School Press, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Falkinger J (2006) Attention economies. J Econ Theory 133(2007):266–294

    Google Scholar 

  • Frana PL (2004) Before the web there was gopher. IEEE Ann Hist Comput 26(1):20–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman TL (2007) The world is flat: a brief history of the twenty-first century. Picador, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hars A, Ou S (2002) Working for free? Motivations for participating in open-source projects. Int J Electron Commerce 6(3):25–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasan H, Pfaff CC (2006) Emergent conversational technologies that are democratising information systems in organisations: the case of the corporate wiki. In: Proceedings of the information systems foundations (ISF): theory, representation and reality conference, Australian National University, Canberra, 27–28 September 2006

  • Kim T (2008) MEconomy. Hanbit Media, Inc

  • Leadbeater C, Miller P (2004) The pro-am revolution: how enthusiasts are changing our economy and society. Demos, London. http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/proameconomy/. Accessed 16 June 2008

  • Lee SM, Trimi S (2008) Editorial: organizational blogs: overview and research agenda. Int J Inf Technol Manag 7(2):113–119

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien D, Fitzgerald B (2006) Mashups, remixes and copyright law. Internet Law Bull 9(2):17–19

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Reilly T (2006) Web 2.0 compact definition: trying again. O’Reilly Radar. http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/12/web_20_compact.html

  • Parameswaran M, Whinston AB (2007) Research issues in social computing. J Assoc Inf Syst 8(6):336–350

    Google Scholar 

  • Paul DL, McDaniel RR Jr (2004) A field study of the effect of interpersonal trust on virtual collaborative relationship performance. MIS Q 28(2):183–227

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephens M, Collins M (2007) Web 2.0, library 2.0, and the hyperlinked library. Ser Rev 33(4):253–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Threvenot G (2007) Blogging as a social media. Tourism and Hospitality Research 7(3):282–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toffler A (1984) The third wave. Bantam, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sang-Heui Lee.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lee, SH., DeWester, D. & Park, S.R. Web 2.0 and opportunities for small businesses. Serv Bus 2, 335–345 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-008-0043-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-008-0043-5

Keywords

Navigation