For marketers, the Internet is increasing in importance. One important marketing issue is how to initiate, develop, and manage relationships with customers through the Internet. This holds true for marketing of goods and services, in domestic as well as international markets. This book aims to improve our knowledge on utilization of the Internet in marketing. The book will supply theoretical as well empirical knowledge on managing customer relationships on the Internet. This book also contributes to the development of theory to explain the internationalization process of Internet firms by proposing that models that emphasize knowledge and network are suitable for this purpose. In doing so, the book answers questions such as: What types of business relationships are possible to establish and develop on the Internet? How much face-to-face contact do we need in business relationships? What are the key driving mechanisms in Internet-based relationship development? It is a true international comparative management book, including data from Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Finland. The book contains 14 chapters. The evidences supplied in the book are based on research in industries such as health care, bio-technology, information technology, and the air-lines. The contributors to this book are active researchers in the field of internet and marketing. The material supplied in this book is new and original. This series: provides an international perspective to the study of business, with a special emphasis on management and marketing issues; deals with such topics as globalization, international business negotiations, cross-cultural communication, entry strategies, doing business in different regions, and future trends; and, also focuses on the development of international business theory, methodological issues, the results of empirical studies and the findings of practitioners.
